


Two notes away from your heart

by MissRamiun



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Romantic Comedy, Changkyun is a shy puppy, Fluff, I mean who can resist that cutie with huge glasses?, M/M, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Wonkyun, and Wonho just can't resist him, and guess what, and they're so cute and fluff ugh I can't deal with the feels, like a lot, okay I'm out, they end up making out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2018-11-13 08:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 56,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11180568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissRamiun/pseuds/MissRamiun
Summary: For Changkyun, Wonho is like a star: something very bright, but also distant and unreachable.The popular boy lives in a completely different world, and Changkyun is well aware of it. It’s clear that, if he tries to venture into those unknown lands, the chances of ending heart-broken are very high.But for Wonho, the temptation of making the adorable boy with huge glasses his own is too big to realize the risks of that love between two worlds.





	1. Love confession

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I didn't know that I'd end up uploading this work in english, but here we are! This fanfic was originally written in spanish, but i thought it would be a good idea to translate it :D (the things i do for wonkyun...)  
> I apologize for any spelling error, english is not my mother tongue, so I'm sorry in advance :'(  
> Lastly, I hope you like it! <3  
> You can see the booktrailer i made for the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbRIQXMcMs8&feature=youtu.be

“Please, don’t go…”

The timid request slipped from the black-haired boy's lips, who didn’t hesitate to take the other's hand to prevent him from leaving the room. Kihyun stood still and turned his face, ready to listen to whatever the other had to say.

"I know it's difficult, but please believe me when I tell you that my feelings are sincere.”

The suffering was evident in his words, but these were even more heartbreaking for the one who was listening to them.

Kihyun sighed and let go of the grip to face the person who hurt him so badly in the past.

"Don’t talk to me about feelings," said the pink-haired, staring at him as coldly as he could. "We both know you don’t have that.”

"Listen to me, I-" Changkyun said almost desperately, trying to get closer to the shorter one, but he backed away with a grimace of disgust.

"Listen to you? Do you really think that with your lies you could fix something?"

Changkyun looked down at his feet, unable to face those menacing eyes; there was something he wanted to say, but he was afraid of the other’s rejection.

"I-I love you..." he admitted in a low voice.

An ironic laugh echoed in the bedroom in response.

"Yeah, right. If you loved me, you would never have allowed that man to get in our relationship.”

The silence took over the room that they shared. Time was ticking by and the black-haired boy continued to make no sound: he was beginning to get nervous and blinked again and again. When a full minute had passed, Kihyun became impatient and put his hands in his hips.

"Changkyun?" he urged him to go on.

"Er... I..." stammered the boy, not quite sure what to say.

Then he turned around and hurriedly picked up some papers from the table in the center of the room; he looked for a specific page and returned with Kihyun, squinting to read the phrase of his character.

"That... it doesn’t matter anymore," he read with difficulty, "my heart... beast past when I'm with you." he finished proudly for being able to decipher the fuzzy letters in the script.

But Changkyun's satisfaction didn’t last long: his friend's frustrated cry made him realize that he had screwed up the performance. Again.

"Beats! Beats fast!” The boy corrected him.

"…Didn’t I say that?"

He received another snort as a reply and Changkyun turned with a questioning face to Hyunwoo, who had witnessed the whole situation from the couch. The dark-haired man shook his head, dismissing all Changkyun’s hopes of having successfully interpreted his part of the dialogue.

"Hyung, I'm sorry," he apologized in a hurry, using the sheets of the script as a shield. “Let me try again.”

Kihyun raised an eyebrow and strode to the little table to take the glasses that rested on the wooden surface.

"If you’d wear your glasses, that wouldn’t have happened," he replied angrily. One of the things that upset him the most was his performance being interrupted.

Changkyun stepped back, not taking his eyes off the lens. He hated those glasses, they were huge and made him look like a nerd.

"I can read without them," he explained, trying to sound convincing, even though he knew that even a mole could see better than him.

His eyesight had worsened during the year before he entered college, especially because of the indecent amount of hours that he spent in front of the computer, but he always found some excuse to postpone the dreaded appointment with the optician.

However, after last month he got into the car of a stranger because he confused it with his mother’s, he couldn’t take refuge in any excuse to avoid going to see a professional.

Changkyun still thought that the two cars looked practically the same...

"If I were you, I’d wear them." Hyunwoo advised him without moving from his comfortable spot. He looked like a spectator of a circus who was witnessing how a lion was about to eat its prey.

The boy swallowed and looked frightened at Kihyun, who was approaching him, almost cornering him against the wall, waving his glasses in the air with a sinister countenance. When he wanted to, his friend could really be scary.

"You're going to wear your glasses," he hissed menacingly. It's more of an order than a request. “And you're going to help me keep practicing for this Friday's play, okay?” he added with a fake smile.

"But... what about Hyunwoo? He could help you..." Changkyun's voice trailed off as he realized how inconsistent his suggestion was: everyone knew that rehearsing a play with Hyunwoo would be like trying to talk to a stone. Even the stone would have more eloquence.

Changkyun had no choice but to resign himself and put on the big lenses, not without first cursing the short dictator internally. Although it was better not to make comments out loud about his height: first because he wasn’t much taller than him, but the main reason that led him to keep his thoughts was that he didn’t want to end up underground.

And he needed to stay alive for his piano recital tomorrow.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun walked discreetly outside the first-year classroom when the bell that indicated afternoon classes were over rang.

The little boy felt exhausted: to have spent all morning under the tyranny of Kihyun didn’t help him to stay awake and pay attention to the economy’s lesson.

The idea of returning to the campus residence and sleep his ass off was very tempting, but to his disgrace, he had hardly practiced for the concert of the next day. At times like this, Changkyun regretted joining the music club.

Lately, the boy preferred to stay in his room playing some video game or reading a book rather than playing the piano.

It wasn’t like this before.

Although he was forced to play that instrument since he was a kid, Changkyun always enjoyed the melodies his fingers were able to create just pressing a few keys.

But that didn’t change the fact that, in his opinion, he was a rather mediocre pianist; having attended professional concerts had been enough to undermine his confidence in his own skills. Changkyun was happy to be in a middle point: he didn’t suck at it, but neither was some kind of modern Beethoven.

However, lately he had lost his motivation. The piano left him a bittersweet feeling; he no longer felt the same when he played it years ago, as if his music was empty. It just was not the same.

With a sigh, the boy made his way to the faculty hall. As he entered the enormous room, he walked over the worn red carpet of the corridor that traversed the place through the center, with many rows of seats at the sides.

Taking the small stairs of the right, he went up the stage and turned on the spotlights with the electric panel placed backstage. Then, he took some sheet music from his backpack and walked to the grand piano that was in the middle of the place.

He settled himself on the bench and, placing the papers on the music stand, he sharpened his eyes and tried to distinguish some musical note in the blur that his tired eyes could see.

He clucked his tongue and, in defeat, took the huge glasses from the outer pocket of his broad denim jacket; once he had recovered his vision, he put the tip of his right foot on one of the pedals and put the tips of his fingers on the cold keys, without actually pressing them.

Taking a deep breath, he finally began to play. It was a very delicate song and Changkyun's hands moved carefully, caressing the keys and respecting the softness of the piece. As the melody gained a certain intensity, the boy played more firmly.

He could feel the sadness of the composer, his joy and his anger: the song conveyed many feelings, and just when it reached the highest point, of greater emotional weight, the boy hesitated.

And his fingers stopped obeying. Some off-pitched notes came out of the piano before a complete silence took over the auditorium.

The thin hands became insecure, and despite of starting over three more times, they failed him again at the climax of the song.

Changkyun sighed and rubbed his eyes under his glasses: he was too tired to continue practicing. Nor did he want to stay until much later, as he used to do when he still enjoyed playing the piano.

He stared at the sheet music from his seat, and inevitably recalled the pages of the script that Kihyun forced him to learn: he was 100 percent sure that his dear roommate would force him to rehearse for the play that night again. Changkyun was not even part of the theater club, he was doing it for his friend ... or rather to stay alive and kicking.

"Please don’t go," he murmured, looking at the front. "I love you."

The black-haired boy grimaced in his own words: it sounded so fake. He cleared his throat and straightened his back.

"I love you," he repeated, raising his voice, trying to imitate the feeling with which Kihyun interpreted all his lines, "my heart beats fast ... when I’m with you.”

Were really people out there that actually talked like this? Saying all these cheesy things? He wasn’t able to understand how someone could confess his love with a paragraph that seemed taken from a romantic novel. And not from a good one, precisely.

He couldn’t help but imagining himself saying all those lame lines to another person, with a background sunrise to bring drama and make everything more romantic. He laughed at the ridiculous thought and shook his head: he was quite sure that, if he ever fell in love with someone, he would never confess in such a corny way.

Still with a smile on his lips, Changkyun turned on the bench with the intention of getting up, but stood motionless as he made eye contact with the stranger that watched him from the front row of the seats.

All the muscles in his face froze, and his brain was slow to process the information: since when had that person been sitting there? Had he... heard him?

The unknown boy, who had witnessed part of the piano recital and the curious love confession, stood up and walked up to the stage, supporting his forearms on the wooden surface. A smile crossed his rosy lips and watched amused how Changkyun's cheeks began to look like an erupting volcano.

“That was adorable.”

Changkyun had never wanted to disappear this much in his entire life.


	2. Improvisation

Changkyun didn’t know what to say or do; he wanted with all his might to run from there, but the intense gaze of the messy brown-haired boy was making him so nervous that he couldn’t react.

"I’m sorry if I surprised you," the boy apologized, "but I heard someone playing and I was curious. And what you said... it was really adorable.”

Because of the stranger’s kindly and sincere expression, Changkyun didn’t know whether he was teasing him or not; the only thing he knew was that he hadn’t felt this ashamed in a long time. He looked down at his legs and squeezed his denim-jacket sleeves, unable to maintain eye contact any longer.

The stranger realized that what he said was making him uncomfortable and bit his lip with guilt: it wasn’t his intention to tease him. Finally, he climbed up to the stage and walked towards the piano; as he approached Changkyun, he shrank more and more, like a frightened puppy.

The brunette stopped at a safe distance to not invade the little boy's personal space and pointed at the instrument with his chin.

"You play the piano very well," he pointed out with a gentle smile, trying to give him a topic of conversation and opening up to him, "are you in the music club?"

Changkyun hesitated momentarily before nodding.

"I supposed it... and what year are you in?"

After a few seconds, the younger dared to look up at him, and this time he was able to analyze him more closely. The first thing that caught his attention was his clothing: the black leather jacket and ripped jeans made him look like a magazine model; his ears -that stuck out a little- were covered by piercings and he wore a choker on his neck.

His pink lips were fleshy and his dark eyes were practically covered by his brown hair: Changkyun wondered how he could walk without hitting himself on the walls wearing his hair like that.

He surely was a popular person on campus: in conclusion, he was the kind of people he didn’t want to get involved with.

Wonho raised his eyebrows, waiting patiently for an answer; it was then that Changkyun realized that he had been staring at him for way too long.

"I’m in first year..."

Although his voice was usually deep, this time it sounded like a squeak of a helpless little animal. He hated being like this, but he wasn’t precisely good at engaging conversations with complete strangers, and even less when _that_ particular stranger had heard him recite some cheesy lines of a lame script.

"Oh, so you’re a freshman…" he murmured, pursing his lips with a thoughtful expression. “I'm in fourth year, my name is Shin Hoseok, by the way,” he added with a giggle, realizing that he hadn’t introduced himself yet, “but I prefer Wonho.”

Changkyun knew that the socially correct thing would be telling him his name, but instead of fighting his insecurities, he chose to remain silent. Wonho cleared his throat, beginning to realize the kind of person he was dealing with.

“And what is your name?” he asked carefully, taking two steps towards the scared puppy. The approaching alarmed the black-haired boy, who jumped up from the seat, surprising the other in the process.

"I… I have to go," he stammered almost inaudibly. Then he clumsily picked up the sheet music and passed by the brunette almost running.

“Hey, wait!” exclaimed Hoseok because of his sudden escape. He took Changkyun's arm and, due to the pull, his glasses fell to the floor. The sound of breaking glass made them both petrified, staring at the lenses with wide eyes.

Wonho let go of him and watched him guiltily.

"I-I'm so sorry," he said apologetically. After all, he had just broken a -provably very expensive- pair of glasses of a boy he just met. But Changkyun didn’t even look him in the face and left as fast as he could, leaving behind his huge lenses and the boy of fourth grade.

When he left the assembly hall, the black-haired boy could breathe again. That whole situation was tremendously uncomfortable; he just hoped he would never meet that guy again.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun put on two T-shirts and a sweatshirt on top. Normally he wore clothes and clothes regardless of the weather; going dressed like this made him feel more secure and protected.

But that day he wore a large blue corduroy jacket too: he was going to need an extra layer of clothing to feel more confident about himself.

That night he didn’t get much sleep. The encounter he had the day before with that Wonho guy kept him awake, but what worried him the most was the piano recital he had that morning.

How the hell was he going to read the sheet music without his glasses? If he hadn’t run away like that and had taken his glasses off the ground, he wouldn’t have to face this situation. Maybe he would have had enough time to go to a store to have them fixed.

It was almost twelve in the morning, and people were beginning to arrive at the auditorium. The dark-haired boy was backstage; he walked nervously from one place to another, holding the scores with his little hands and trying to distinguish some musical notes from the papers without much success.

"Changkyun?"

He ignored the voice and kept walking without taking his eyes off the sheet music: perhaps if he kept looking at them for a long time, the blurry pages would turn into readable pentagrams.

"Changkyun!”

The cry of his pink-haired friend made him flinch and looked at him at last.

“What?”

"What do you mean with _what_?" Kihyun asked annoyed. “The recital is about to start and you’re reviewing the scores, isn’t that strange enough for me to worry?”

That was true, Changkyun rarely rehearsed before a concert. Despite being an insecure person, as he stepped onto the stage, he overflowed a confidence that he wished he always had.

But that time he didn’t practice at all... not to mention that he had no way to read the scores.

"I just haven’t practiced enough, that's all," Changkyun explained, trying to dismiss the matter, even though inside his nerves were killing him.

Kihyun frowned, scanning him with his eyes.

"Where are your glasses?"

The boy held tighter the papers, cursing internally his friend and his observation capacity.

"I… broke them yesterday..." Kihyun's eyes widened in disbelief. “But don’t worry! I've already told you that I can read without them.”

"But... what are you going to do? You didn’t memorize the score!” exclaimed his roommate.

Changkyun didn’t know the answer to that question either: he had no freaking idea what he was going to do. But, fortunately, he didn’t have to answer him as the voice of the music club coordinator echoed throughout the auditorium; he was thanking the audience for attending the recital.

Then, he introduced the piece they were going to have the honor of hearing from one of the club's most talented members. The adjective he used to refer to Changkyun only made him more nervous: yeah, the audience would enjoy a nice piece of music, but it would be completely improvised.

The black-haired boy took a deep breath as the crowd began to clap and glanced at Kihyun, who wished him good luck in silence.

He began to walk towards the stage with his heart hammering at his chest; he wished with all his might that his fingers wouldn’t fail him again, like in yesterday's rehearsal.

“Wait!”

Changkyun stopped and turned to the owner of the voice: it was Wonho. His brown hair was so messy and he was breathing hard because of the running.

Still not catching his breath, he approached the surprised boy and smiled tiredly.

"Thank god… I got just in time," he muttered relieved. Changkyun was speechless from the impression of seeing him again; at that moment, his head didn’t even wonder how the hell he knew at what time his concert was.

Then, Wonho took a glasses case from the pocket of his green bomber. He opened it and pulled out Changkyun's glasses, whose broken lenses were replaced with shiny, new ones.

Even though the brunette was only a few inches taller, he bent slightly to put them gently on the little boy.

"Perfect," he said with a big smile. Changkyun was so hypnotized by his brown eyes that he didn’t notice the short distance between them; Wonho patted him on the head and brought him back to planet Earth. “Good luck out there.”

The black-haired boy tightened his mouth and, unable to say thank you, he turned around and went to the center of the stage, completely stunned by what had just happened.

He didn’t understand why a guy he barely knew would bother to buy in a hurry a pair of new lenses for his glasses. But the hard beating of his heart... was something he understood even less.


	3. Misunderstanding

The warm breeze of May caused the trees under which Changkyun was sitting to sway slightly. He enjoyed being alone; having time to think helped him to relax and the aroma of the box of curried rice that he just bought at the cafeteria transported him to his small world that he didn’t want to leave.

After the recital had ended, Changkyun had deliberately avoided meeting Kihyun; his friend had witnessed the moment he had with Wonho just before the concert, and he was quite sure that an interrogation awaited him if he ran into him.

But of course, his peace couldn’t last not even two minutes.

“Confess it.”

The black-haired boy rolled his eyes and turned to Kihyun, who had taken a seat to his left on the lawn next to Hyunwoo.

"What do you want me to confess?" asked the younger, playing the fool and stirring his rice distractedly with the spoon.

"Everything," said the pink-haired. “First of all, how do you know Wonho?”

Changkyun frowned.

“How is that you know his name?” he asked leaving his lunch aside.

"Oh, come on, everyone knows him.” Changkyun’s eyes drifted to Hyunwoo's, whose confused expression indicated that he wasn’t part of that ‘everyone’. Kihyun looked at them in disbelief. “Really? Haven’t you ever heard of him? The guy that all the girls on campus drool over? Mister perfect smile? The one who is said to have slept with the whol-”

But Kihyun couldn’t continue his speech because Hyunwoo's big hand covered his mouth.

"Don’t say those dirty things in front of the kid," he scolded him before taking his hand away, gaining a tongue clacking from Kihyun.

Changkyun blushed slightly and stood silent: in these situations, it seemed like they considered him a completely innocent child. And, in part, it wasn’t true. He may not have experience in love, but he had heard certain... things.

"I don’t know why I even bother... of course you don’t know him. You two are a pair of weirdos," snapped Kihyun, getting a smile from both of them. “And you still haven’t answered me.”

Changkyun swallowed and looked away.

"We just- we talked for a while yesterday... nothing else,” The black-haired boy knew that his explanation had been very poor, and that it wouldn’t satisfy Kihyun's curiosity. “He broke my glasses, okay?” he finally confessed.

“He did _what_?” he yelled outraged. His reaction was enough for Changkyun to regret telling him; knowing his friend, he probably thought that Wonho had messed with him and that he had broken his glasses on purpose.

Changkyun already had problems in his previous schools because of his strange personality; people considered him a weirdo, someone who didn’t fit anywhere. He had always been an easy target for bullies, but he eventually got used to it; that’s why, since he met Kihyun in the auditorium where one performed his piano recitals and the other interpreted his plays, he became some kind of an overprotective mother of his.

"But it was an accident," said the boy nervously, "and he went to a store to fix them..."

However, the explanation didn’t calm his furious roommate. His angry eyes stopped on a specific spot and Changkyun turned his neck in that direction.

"Speak of the devil," Kihyun hissed, his jaw tightening.

In the parking lot, that was a few meters away from them, Wonho and another three boys were chatting. The brunette was leaning against the door of a black car, his green bomber was tied around his waist, and a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes.

When he realized that Changkyun was looking at him, he smiled at him from his spot and waved his hand; the boy lowered his face quickly with his cheeks burning. _What the hell is wrong with me?_

Hoseok said something to his friends and approached the tree under which they were. Just before he reached them, Kihyun rose quickly and folded his arms, getting in his way.

"Hello Wonho," he greeted him with false friendliness.

The brunette was surprised that a boy he had never spoken with knew his name, but he still smiled.

"Excuse me, do we know each other?" he asked, trying to be kind.

"No, but I'm friends with Changkyun, and you seem to know him."

Changkyun wanted to cover his face with the rice box because of the embarrassment: why did Kihyun always have to make a mountain out of a molehill?

Wonho glanced at the dark-haired boy over Kihyun's shoulder and giggled awkwardly; he didn’t know what he did to deserve this stranger’s hate.

"Well... yeah, I know him," he finally admitted, "but I don’t understand why..."

"Look, I won’t beat about the bush," said Kihyun with contained anger, "if you put a finger on Changkyun, I swear I’ll… hey!

But he couldn’t continue with the threats because Hyunwoo picked him up as if he were a doll and carried him by his shoulder.

"Time to go," said the big guy, ignoring the shorty’s kicks and complaints. “Don’t listen to Kihyun, he’s always talking nonsense. Oh, and nice to meet you." he finished with his usual robotic countenance before he left with an angry Kihyun.

Wonho couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed and blinked a couple of times, staying stuck in place.

"What the hell…" he said, completely shocked.

Even though Changkyun was already used to these kinds of scenes by those two, that was the first time he really regretted being their friend. The little pianist covered half of his blushed face with one hand and his eyes looked anywhere but Hoseok.

The brunette put the sunglasses on his head before approaching to Changkyun.

"It seems that your friend doesn’t like me," he commented once he recovered from the shock, putting his hands in his jeans’ pockets.

The black-haired rubbed his neck feeling awkward.

"I'm sorry about that," he apologized timidly for Kihyun's embarrassing behavior.

"Don’t worry," replied Wonho, shrugging his shoulders, "your friends seem… peculiar.”

The comment was not malicious; in fact, he thought that having crazy friends like them should be quite fun. Changkyun nodded with an almost imperceptible smile: he thought that the adjective 'peculiar' wasn’t enough to describe them.

Wonho scratched his eyebrow, trying to find the right words to tell the cute puppy.

“I... well, I just wanted to congratulate you for today’s recital,” Changkyun looked up, raising his eyebrows, but said nothing. “You were awesome! It was so cool hearing you play, really.”

He said it with such enthusiasm that Changkyun found it hard to suppress a smile; because he could read the music sheet and his fingers didn’t fail him, he was able to interpret the piece successfully. He tightened his lips and looked back at his box of curried rice: at this point it had probably cooled down.

"Can I... can I sit with you?" he asked carefully, afraid of frightening him like the day before.

Changkyun hesitated before nodding. Hoseok's face brightened and he took a seat next to him with a big smile; he breathed in the warm air and closed his eyes, resting both hands on the grass and enjoying the rays of sun that crossed the branches of the tree.

The black-haired boy watched him while he hugged his legs: he wasn’t sure if he liked Wonho’s friendly approach. Changkyun was a very distrustful person; his past experiences taught him that people who at first seemed kind, ended up being the meanest and the cruelest.

Neither of them spoke for a while, but the silence that surrounded them wasn’t uncomfortable.

“Aren’t you hot?”

The sudden question brought Changkyun back to Earth; the older boy watched his clothes amused and fascinated at the same time: it was amazing for him that he could withstand the May heat wearing so many layers of clothing.

"I always dress like this..." he murmured, playing with his fingers.

Wonho laughed slightly at the reply and looked up to the sky without losing his smile.

"You look like an onion with all those layers."

Changkyun frowned at the comparison. However, the fact that he had joked with him didn’t bother him; in fact, he was tempted to make a comment about his hair covering his eyes. But he wasn’t confident to say such a thing.

However, there was something he wanted to ask.

“How is that-? I mean, how did you know at what time the recital was?”

Wonho pursed his lips at the question.

"Well, you see..." he began to say as he played with one of the ripped holes of his jeans, "yesterday I went to an optical shop to fix the glasses, but since it was closed, I returned early today to the store so I could give them to you as soon as possible. And when I got to the campus I realized," His own nervous giggle interrupted him momentarily, “that I didn’t know where to find you.”

Changkyun listened carefully to the explanation, noticing that whenever Wonho became nervous, he would start laughing like an idiot.

"All I knew about you was that you were at the music club, so I went to your club class and asked for a small boy with glasses. And well, they told me that your name was Lim Changkyun... and that you had a recital in five minutes.”

The black-haired one remembered Wonho’s state when he went to give him the glasses: it seemed that he had just run a marathon. He still had to thank him for that.

"Thank you for yesterday," he muttered without looking directly at him, hugging his legs with even more strength.

Wonho's lips curved into a warm smile. He was moved by the child; he loved that he was embarrassed to say thanks.

"It's nothing... it was the least I could do. After all, it was my fault that your glasses were broken.”

The kind words of the brunette made a comforting feeling invade Changkyun; but it didn’t last long, because when Wonho began to lean towards him, all the blood in his body went up to his head and his brain stopped functioning.

“You know... next time it would be easier to find you if I had your phone number.”

The little boy didn’t know how to answer to that. He stared at him completely paralyzed; his stomach twitched and he suddenly felt a fever.

It was probably due to the heat.

He swallowed loudly, considering the possibility of lying and telling him that he had no cell phone; however, another part of him wondered what was wrong with giving him his number.

“Would you give it to me?” Wonho asked in a very soft voice.

Despite of not wearing his glasses, he could clearly see how Wonho’s eyes were narrowing, looking at him with patience and understanding. Changkyun didn’t think about anything and finally answered.

“Okay…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to listen to the playlist I made for this fanfic, check out this link!!  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrzW1IHAHg&list=PLZoJ0CzGYhujLFVPrUENAdZWnPk7xFPJb


	4. Sleepy

Changkyun's small hands held his cell tightly. He couldn’t stop rereading the messages he had exchanged with Wonho since the day he gave him his phone number.

That Tuesday, the brunette sent him a message in the afternoon asking him how he was; Changkyun didn’t expect to receive a text from him so quickly, and he didn’t answer until the next day. When he gathered enough courage, he responded with a simple 'good', and the first conversation ended.

Sad but true.

On Thursday, Wonho took the initiative again and showed interest in his studies, and the black-haired answered again with a sharp 'everything good'. That same day, he ran into him through the corridors of the faculty and became so nervous that he pretended not to see him and passed by.

He bit his lip and scolded himself internally; he didn’t pretend to be so cold, it was just that his social skills were nil. He didn’t want Hoseok to think he didn’t like him and because of that he treated him that way.

And today, Friday, Changkyun feared that the boy would sent him another message and that he didn’t know again what to answer.

“Here you have.”

The waitress's voice dragged him out of his thoughts and he hurriedly put his cell phone in his jacket’s pocket; he placed his folder full of sheet music under his arm and picked up the steaming cup of coffee that the older woman was offering him at the cafe bar.

He went away and passed by a crowded table, finally sitting in a quiet area near the windows. He set his briefcase aside and placed his hands on each side of the mug to warm himself up.

He would usually have breakfast with Kihyun and Hyunwoo, but that morning they were both busy. Today at noon was the play of his roommate, and he had been rehearsing for it in the auditorium since the early hours of the morning. Kihyun took his interpretation very seriously.

And as for Hyunwoo, he was training at the campus stadium; his friend belonged to the football club, and on Fridays they had to start the warm-ups especially early because on weekends they used to have some match.

However, loneliness was not something that bothered Changkyun. From time to time, he was grateful to have a quiet time alone; he especially appreciated having a break from Kihyun's sermons about how little he trusted Wonho and that he should be careful with a guy like him.

He smelled the delicious scent of coffee and closed his eyes: he adored that bitter smell. With a small smile, he took the cup by the handle and gently blew the surface of the hot beverage before taking a sip.

It was delicious... if he could, Changkyun would drink coffee instead of water.

When he was about to take another sip, he noticed that someone was standing on his left and he looked in that direction, putting the cup back on the plate. A very tall, thin guy was observing him with a strange smile; his slightly wavy black hair was combed to one side and his eyes were half closed: he seemed to be very sleepy.

The little boy looked at him uneasily: his drowsy appearance made him look like he was about to fall flat to the ground at any moment.

"Hello," the stranger greeted him with a delicate voice.

Changkyun flinched without taking his eyes off the slender boy.

"H- hi," he replied doubtfully, not knowing yet why a complete stranger would come to speak to him.

"Lim Changkyun?"

He nodded weakly, causing the tall boy’s smile to widen; without asking permission, he took a seat in front of Changkyun and interlaced his fine fingers on the table.

The little boy started to get nervous because of the intensity with which he was being stared at. "I'm…I’m sorry, but I don’t know wha-"

The boy's stuttering was interrupted by the soft laughter of the contrary.

"You’re so cute," he said matter-of-factly, resting his head in the palm of his hand. Changkyun was speechless at this: he didn’t expect him to say such a thing. “Sorry, I haven’t even introduced myself. My name is Chae Hyungwon and I'm in fourth year." he explained slowly, without losing the smile on his fleshy lips.

Even though Changkyun had never talked to him before, he had a pleasant aura of tranquility that made him not feel so uncomfortable engaging a conversation.

"I'm friends with Wonho, by the way. He told me a few things about you... you're at the music club, right?”

The mere mention of the brunette was enough to make his cheeks blush. _Why had Hoseok told a friend about me?_

Changkyun nodded silently and buried his chin inside his gray-collared sweater.

"Ah, he also said that you play the piano very well... although I don’t know if I should believe him. That boy tends to exaggerate things, you see.”

The child let out a faint smile on his lips: just imagining Wonho speaking highly of his skills as a pianist was kind of funny. _I’m not even that good..._

"Did you know he's in a club too?"

That aroused the little boy's curiosity: what club would Wonho be in? Surely in a cool one like football... that suited him a lot. But if that was the case, Hyunwoo would have told him.

“For real?” Changkyun asked, trying to hide his interest.

Hyungwon nodded before groaning.

"He says it’s the best club on campus... can you believe that?" he answered lazily, “In my opinion, the yoga and relaxation club is the best by far.”

Changkyun thought that club suited very well the sleepy boy; then, a vibration in his pocket made him put his hand in his denim jacket to pull out his cell phone. He saw that it was a message from Wonho, and his heart fluttered.

_Changkyun... can we talk a moment after school?_

Seeing that Changkyun was so focused on his phone, Hyungwon decided it was better to not keep distracting him.

"Well... I won’t bother you anymore," said Hyungwon with a sigh, "It was nice talking to you.”

"Oh, you weren’t bothering me," said the boy slightly altered, blocking his phone and putting it back in his pocket. His nerves were frayed because of the message he had just received.

The tall boy smiled at him and rose from his seat. His intention was to leave, but he stayed in place, grabbing the back of his chair.

 "You know... Wonho is very sensitive. He’s a good person, but he lets himself be easily hurt by others.”

The seriousness in Hyungwon's expression frightened him a little; suddenly, he remembered the coldness with which he had treated the brunette and felt terribly bad with himself: would he have hurt him unintentionally?

Changkyun looked down guiltily and shrank in his chair; Hyungwon realized that his extreme seriousness had caused that effect on the little boy and smiled again to lighten the mood.

"Sorry, don’t listen to me... I don’t know why I suddenly told you all these things..."

"Where's Wonho?"

The slender boy stared at him in surprise.

"I think he's in his club's classroom, but-"

“And where is that?”

Changkyun have gathered a lot of courage to raise the two questions; he was pressing his fingers to his knees tightly and his cheeks were heated. Hyungwon's lips began to form a wide smile of pure satisfaction: he made that the shy boy, on which his best friend had a slight crush, went to see him.

He definitely deserved a medal.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

After climbing the last step to the third floor of the faculty, Changkyun pressed his file against his chest and took a breath.

_"Go to the end of the third floor’s hallway, turn left and then turn right"_

He remembered the instructions Hyungwon had given him to reach Wonho’s club classroom and went on his way. He walked through the white corridors with the heart pounding his chest because of the nerves; he didn’t even have the slightest idea of what he was going to say to him.

But he didn’t know why, he had the need to let him know that his company didn’t displease him.

As he approached the wooden door with a paper star stuck on its surface, he began to consider turning around and return to where he came from. But his legs wouldn’t stop moving. The truth is that Changkyun really wanted to know in which club Wonho was...

He started to slow down until he reached the door: it was ajar and he could hear a voice coming from the other side. It seemed to be Hoseok's, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

Changkyun bit his lip and finally decided to take a look. And what he saw... he expected anything but that.

Wonho wore as dressed in a fluorescent green apron and was holding a baby-shaped doll in his arms; there was a chorus of girls around him who listened to his lively speech.

In the chalkboard of the classroom there was written with gigantic letters: 'health and maternity club'.


	5. The best club

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, i'm sososo sorry for the long wait TT_TT i've been focusing on finishing this fanfic on summer, and I did it! but then I started a new one and dvndvdsdcdv my lazy ass wasn't in the mood of translating ;-;  
> I'd like keep updating this fanfic with more frequency, maybe once or twice a week, so wait for it <33
> 
> (btw I just realized that the chapters of the beginning are way shorter than the newer ones, I started making them longer as the story goes on :))

"When you hold a baby, you have to be especially careful with his head," Wonho explained with a smile. He looked at the club coordinator, a middle-aged lady who also listened to him sitting with the rest of the girls, and she nodded proudly.

Changkyun still couldn’t believe that this club existed, and even less that Wonho was in it; he stood in the doorway, silently watching the panorama ahead.

The brunette delicately placed his hand on the doll's head while with the other he gripped it firmly and patted its back. The coordinator and all the others were dazed by the demonstration of how to hold a baby. Or rather by the person who was holding him.

"Hoseok oppa..." a girl with straight bangs called him, raising her hand, "could you teach me how to hold him?"

“Of course.”

When Wonho knelt in front of her and carefully gave her the doll, the girl giggled a little and blushed. Changkyun frowned at this sight: it was obvious that she wasn’t interested in learning how to hold a baby. The little boy couldn’t help letting out a snort that caught Hoseok's attention; their eyes met and the raven-haired gasped before hurriedly hide.

He leaned his back against the wall with his cheeks as red as tomatoes and stood motionless, squeezing his folder: Wonho had seen him… he surely thought that he was spying on him.

"Okay girls, I think that's enough for today," Wonho said on the other side of the wall, earning the complaints of his 'club mates'. “Oh, come on... don’t be like that.”

"We'll learn how to change diapers next time," the coordinator added.

Little by little, they all began to walk out reluctantly from the classroom, passing by Changkyun. Only one of them noticed his presence; the girl with the straight bangs looked at him for a few moments before continuing her way.

Wonho and the coordinator left at the same time; the lady patted him on the cheek with pride in her gaze and went down the hall. The boy sighed and turned to Changkyun, who didn’t look up from the floor.

"I didn’t think you'd come to see me."

The black-haired boy looked up sheepishly and was welcomed by a friendly face and a tired smile.

"Well... I-" he stammered nervously. He swallowed hard and forced himself to stop being so insecure, he didn’t want things to be awkward. “I saw your message," he managed to say more calmly.

Wonho pursed his lips in a thin line before sitting on the floor, resting on his back against the wall. Changkyun looked at him from above and sat on the floor as well. As the brunette didn’t say anything, it was the little pianist who took the initiative in the conversation.

"Why did you want to see me after school?"

Silence.

This didn’t help Changkyun, who was beginning to wonder if Hoseok was angry with him.

"Changkyun... have I done something wrong?" Changkyun raised his eyebrows and opened his lips. Wonho was looking at him with pure concern in his eyes. “I mean... if I did something that bothered you, I won’t do it again. I’ll stop sending you messages if that's what you want.”

The words skipped so quickly out of Wonho’s lips that the black-haired boy found it difficult to assimilate them.

"I've always found it easy to get along with people," he continued slower this time, lowering his gaze and playing with his fingers, "and I'd like to get along with you, but I don’t know how."

Changkyun remained silent and narrowed his eyes. It was his fault that Wonho was feeling that way.

"No," he finally said.

“N-no?” Wonho repeated with fear, thinking that the little boy didn’t want to have a friendship with him.

"Your messages... they don’t bother me at all.”

Relief invaded Wonho and he smiled with the intention of telling him that he was glad to hear that; however, Changkyun continued to speak slightly flushed and without looking away on his knees.

“Forgive me. I also want us to be friends... and talk more with you.”

It was the truth. Despite his past bad experiences and Kihyun's advice of not approaching Wonho, he was sure that he wasn’t a bad person.

The heat rose to Hoseok's cheeks: this time, he was the one who remained silent. He thought that Changkyun was being incredibly adorable, but of course he wouldn’t tell him, he didn’t want to frighten him again. Instead, he watched him with soft eyes and hugged his legs with a small smile.

Feeling heated, Changkyun pulled the collar of his gray jumper and avoided eye contact. The words he just said were too embarrassing and now he didn’t know how to continue the conversation.

Wonho's eyelids fell a little and he sharpened his gaze, looking at the boy's golden-skinned neck: it had a tiny lunar just above his Adam's apple. The brunette thought he would love to kiss it...

"I didn’t expect you to be on this club."

Changkyun's deep voice brought Wonho back to planet Earth and shook his head slightly; he scolded himself for having those kind of thoughts and smiled at the innocent boy.

“Why?” he asked curiously, receiving a shrug in return, “Did you think I was on the football club or something?” he chuckled.

Changkyun thought about it for a moment and nodded: that was exactly what he thought. Wonho blinked a couple of times for the sincerity of the kid and scratched his eyebrow.

"Oh, well... I'm also interested in sports. I still go running to the stadium sometime or go to the gym.” The older boy put a finger on his temple and tapped it a couple times, “You know what they say... healthy body, healthy mind.”

Changkyun's dark eyes fell into Wonho’s arms; despite being covered by a black long-sleeved T-shirt, he could see they were toned. Suddenly, he felt the desire to lay his fingers on his arms and touch them.

"Anyway, this club always caught my attention since the beginning. I love children, you know?" he explained, combing his bangs back, revealing his delicate eyebrows for the first time. “Not many people were on it, but since I joined last year it has become more popular ...”

The black-haired boy wrinkled his nose: he suspected that the reason for the club's popularity wasn’t people’s interest in health or motherhood, but rather in the angelic boy in front of him.

Wonho was no fool; he knew that his good physical appearance was the main reason why many approached him. When he thought about it, he became very sad: most people were interested in him just to be close to ‘the most attractive guy on campus’, and not because of who he was.

“I-I like children too," Changkyun said, seeing Wonho was beginning to look down. “But I think they don’t like me…”

This made the pink lips of the brunette curl into a smile.

“And why is that?” he asked softly.

Changkyun recalled the day he had to stay at his aunt's house, taking care of his little cousin. There wasn’t a single second in which he wasn’t crying; his patience and his attempts to calm him were useless, and the fact that the kid said that his voice was scary was like a punch in the stomach.

"I think my voice scares them..." he murmured, pouting and playing with the rings of his folder.

That earned him a laugh from Wonho, who raised his hand to pat him softly on the head.

"I'm sure it's not like that, don’t be sad.” Changkyun's heart beat like crazy because of the caress and he shrank on the spot. “I think that in a couple of weeks we’ll be able to go to a kindergarten to take care of the children... if you want, you can come too.”

The suggestion of being a babysitter for a day didn’t sound bad at all: perhaps he could learn some trick so that his voice wouldn’t frighten the kids. Changkyun smiled and nodded, agreeing to the proposition.

Wonho smiled at him as well and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by someone who shouted his name.

“Wonho!”

The shrill voice came from a red-haired boy who came jumping up to them with another boy, who wore a cap over his golden curls and had a scary looking face. The redhead had a much more friendly expression, but as soon as he realized that Changkyun was there too, his smile disappeared.

“Who is this?” he asked, pointing at Changkyun.

Wonho rose from the ground and held out his hand to Changkyun, who dubiously accepted his help to get up.

"He's Lim Changkyun, he’s a freshman," the brunette said, supporting his forearm on the boy's shoulder. “And these are Lee Minhyuk and Lee Jooheon. Oh, that's right! Maybe you're in the same class as Jooheon. He's in first year too, you know?”

The little boy already knew Lee Jooheon: indeed, he was in his class, but he never spoke to him. And his intimidating appearance didn’t encourage him to do so either.

However, Changkyun inclined his head slightly toward him in greeting; the blonde gave him a look of indifference and twisted his face, making Wonho frown with disapproval. Minhyuk didn’t show too much enthusiasm to meet him either and smiled forcibly.

"What do you guys want?" Wonho said a little annoyed by the attitude of his friends. The redhead smiled again at the question.

"There's going to be a party tomorrow, what do you say?"

Changkyun felt like an intruder, someone who shouldn’t be part of that conversation. He wanted to leave, but Wonho rested his arm on his shoulder and stood as still as a statue.

"I don’t know... I was thinking of going to my parents' house tomorrow to spend the weekend.”

“Oh, come on! Don’t be boring, hyung...”

Wonho thought about it for a few seconds before answering.

“Next weekend.” Minhyuk snorted with disappointment in response. “I promise we’ll hang out, don’t worry.” That seemed to calm his anger a bit, until Wonho continued his speech, "Maybe Changkyun could join us," he suggested cheerfully, looking at the black-haired boy with a smile.

Minhyuk and Jooheon stared at the little boy, who swallowed hard. All of this was too much for him: first, these two people told him silently that his presence didn’t please them, and now Wonho wanted them to hang out together.

In any other situation, Changkyun would try to find some shitty excuse, but when he turned to look at Hoseok, he doubted what to do.

He was looking at him expectantly, the excitement on his eyes so overwhelming. Changkyun sighed and, determined to try to get out of his shell and being more sociable, he finally spoke.

“I-I guess I could go…”

The answer only caused Wonho's happiness. The other two merely frowned, reluctant to let the boy join his group of friends. Whether they wanted to or not, Changkyun was going to enter their lives. But not in the way they thought at first.


	6. A simple touch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I'm really realizing that the chapters are way shorter than I thought! They'll get longer eventually, don't worry :) Enjoy <33

The little boy came out of the auditorium with his backpack on his shoulder and his glasses still on; he took the cell phone out of his sweatshirt pocket and found out that it was seven o'clock in the afternoon: he had been practicing for his recital for the next month since five o'clock.

He didn’t want the situation of the last concert to repeat itself; this time he had to practice properly.

He took his headphones out of his backpack and connected them to the phone to listen to music on his way to the residence. He slid his finger over his favorite albums of rap and hip hop, but before he decided on any, the cell phone vibrated in his hand and he glanced at the message that had just arrived.

_“Hi :)”_

A discreet smile formed on the boy's thin lips as he read what Wonho had written; he began to walk more slowly as he answered him.

_"Hey"_

Changkyun soon received a reply.

_"How are you, little onion?"_

The dark haired boy rolled his eyes at the nickname he used. Wonho seemed to be amused by the amount of clothing layers he wore and decided to use that childish nickname.

_"I told you to stop calling me that"_

_"Okay... Changkyunnie"_

It was useless. If it wasn’t the stupid onion’s nickname, it was the diminutive of his name. This past week, the two of them had been exchanging messages often; when they were on the campus, Changkyun made an effort and greeted him or have short conversations with him, all about trivial matters.

It might sound silly, but he found it very difficult to get along with a person. Changkyun found it hard to relate to people, but the elder's insistence and patience helped him to open up to him. Although sometimes Wonho took too many liberties, that didn’t displease him at all...

The pianist was about to not respond him to make it clear that he didn’t like that nickname either, but he let himself go and his fingers began to write for themselves.

_"Do you want me to hit you?"_

He saw that the Wonho read his message, but he didn’t respond despite continuing online. Changkyun bit his lip and stopped walking. Had he crossed the line with that text? Would Wonho be offended by it? Thousands of questions wandered in his head, but his cell vibrated and pulled him out of his thoughts.

_"Such an aggressive little one… how about hanging out today?"_

Hanging out? Today?

The nervousness invaded Changkyun. Suddenly he remembered that last week Wonho suggested that he could accompany them and cursed himself for accepting.

He continued his way to the exit of the faculty, thinking about what to answer. When he left the building and the cold afternoon air hit his face, he realized that if he went out with Wonho and his friends today, he should be prepared to be exposed to them.

He knew that Minhyuk and Jooheon didn’t like him, they made that pretty clear the other day.

Changkyun wanted to leave behind his insecurities and go out to have fun, he wanted it with all his might. But it wasn’t easy.

He stood at the top of the entrance stairs, staring at the screen and feeling guilty. He saw that Wonho was writing and squeezed the phone tightly, expectantly for what he was going to say.

_"It’s okay if you don’t want to"_

That took pressure off him; in the short time he could talk to the eldest, Changkyun realized that he was a sympathetic person. And he appreciated that enormously, since he really didn’t like that anyone forced him to do things which he didn’t feel comfortable with. However, a new message appeared on the chat.

_"But... you’d make me happy if you came too"_

His heart began to beat faster than usual, and he imagined Wonho's face saying those words; suddenly the idea of going out with him and his friends became much more attractive.

He thought seeing Wonho out of college might be nice... It would be kind of a change of scenery.

_"Okay then"_

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

After taking a shower, Changkyun dressed in trousers and a shirt; he didn’t button up the sleeves because he liked them to cover the back of his hands.

He left the bathroom and pulled a loose red sweater from his closet, placing it over his shirt and feeling protected and comfortable. He went to his bed and put aside several of his comics and sheet music that rested on the mattress so he could sit down and comfortably tie the laces of his boots.

“Are you going out?”

His roommate's voice caught his attention and looked at him. Kihyun was leaning against the door frame; he looked tired, he had probably just arrived from the rehearsals at the theater club.

"Yeah," he said before he finished tying his shoes and standing up. He looked at the clock on his bedside table and realized that there were only ten minutes left until Wonho arrived at nine to pick him up.

“Really? Have you finally made friends in your class?”

The question was not malicious: Kihyun was really worried that the pianist still couldn’t get along with anyone his age. The only university friends Changkyun had were Hyunwoo and Kihyun himself.

Changkyun searched in his wardrobe for his denim jacket, intentionally avoiding looking at his friend in the eye: He didn’t want to tell him that he was going out with Wonho, because he knew too well how much he despised him.

“Uh… yeah.”

His hesitation didn’t go unnoticed by Kihyun. The older boy stared at him for a few seconds, but at the end he sighed and threw himself on his bed.

"I'm glad... if you come back late, please don’t make too much noise."

Then he took some script sheets from his bedside table and began to read them with concentration; the black haired boy looked at him in surprise: he was expecting some kind of interrogation from him. Changkyun nodded unconvincingly at the request of his friend and, having put on his jacket, he left the room with his cell phone in his hand.

He decided to go down to the entrance of the residence and wait there for Wonho; he was very anxious to go out with his friends... or was it because he’d spend more time with him? He wasn’t entirely sure, but the nerves made his stomach twist in a painful way.

At the door of the building, the little boy waited patiently; but when Hoseok was already five minutes late, he began to find ways to distract himself and thus kill time.

He played with the sleeves of his shirt, turned on himself a few times until he got dizzy; even tried to walk in a straight line with eyes closed, failing in the process, of course.

As Wonho didn’t arrive, the boy made a pout and stood on tiptoe, trying to catch sight of him in the distance, but he couldn’t see anyone. Maybe because it was starting to get dark, or maybe because he wasn’t wearing his glasses.

Suddenly he felt someone tapping his shoulder and he turned around startled. Wonho was in front of him with a radiant smile.

"I didn’t want to scare you,” he said amused by his reaction.

It was obvious to Changkyun that that was precisely his intention, and a part of him inside wanted to hit him for it. However, he restrained himself and instead stood still, analyzing the boy in front of him. The rumors didn’t lie: Wonho was quite handsome, but that night the eldest was even more attractive than normal.

Perhaps it was the choker that fitted perfectly to his neck, or the ripped jeans that exposed the pale skin of his muscled legs. It may have been the beautiful smile of perfect teeth that adorned his angelic face.

He looked like a porcelain doll.

Wonho began to feel nervous because of the intense gaze of Changkyun and giggled.

“Do I have something on my face?” he asked, resting a hand on his own cheek.

As Changkyun didn’t respond, Hoseok took it as a yes and pulled his cell phone out of the back pocket of his black jeans with concern. He looked at his reflection from the screen and touched his face for a trail of food or toothpaste. Changkyun suppressed a smile at that: apparently, his appearance was very important to him.

Although Wonho had nothing that stained his perfect face, an unknown impulse took control of Changkyun's body and took a step toward him, raising a hand to his cheek.

When his fingers touched the skin of the brunette, Wonho opened his eyes wide and looked at him in surprise. The moment their gazes met, Changkyun realized what he was doing and blushed hard, quickly taking away his hand and looking down at the floor.

"I-I've already cleaned it," muttered the embarrassed boy.

"Thanks, shall we go?"

Wonho turned around and began to walk toward his car, not waiting for the younger to catch up with him. Despite his apparent calmness, his heart thudded frantically at the simple touch. He didn’t want Changkyun to see his red ears and that was why he was walking so fast.

The brunette wanted to feel the softness of the small hand against his skin again; in fact, he was craving for doing a lot of things with those innocent hands. Things that, if he said outloud, would surely scare the cute puppy away and make him lose the friendship that, little by little, was being built up between the two of them.

The pianist walked behind him with his head low, wondering what the hell had possessed him to do that stupidity. The softness of Wonho's cheek was still etched in his fingers.

And he wished silently he could caress him again.


	7. One, two, three drinks

It would take about fifteen minutes to reach the center of Cheongju; the journey passed quickly to Changkyun, as the eldest was chatting cheerfully with him on their way while listening to music. Wonho's favorite songs were the acoustic ones, and that was reflected in the numerous discs he had in the glove box of that genre.

The little boy felt comfortable and talked openly about his musical tastes, which mostly included rap and hip hop. Wonho was kind of surprised by it: he had assumed that, because he played the piano, he only listened to classical music.

When they were in a street looking for a place to park, Wonho began to absentmindedly sing part of the song that was being played; his voice was incredibly sweet, and Changkyun sank into his seat as he listened in silence.

He thought his popularity was justified, for Wonho was perfect in too many aspects: it was normal for people to be attracted to him. His character was so loving and caring, his smile illuminated everyplace he went... did he even have any flaws?

“Changkyun?” Wonho's voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he jumped on his sit. The older had already parked and was on his right, keeping the copilot's door open so he could get out. “Are you not feeling okay?” he asked as Changkyun stepped out of the car, looking a bit dazed.

He shook his head and Wonho looked at him with concern before closing the door and pressing a button on the car keys to lock it. The pianist's face showed no expression that would give him any clue as to whether he was lying or not, so he decided to use a trick that used to work to persuade people.

He approached him and pulled one of his charming smiles.

“Are you sure?” he asked in a soft voice, raising his eyebrows.

The coldness on Changkyun's face didn’t change.

“Pretty sure.”

The sharp answer was like a needle that pricked his bubble of confidence: his technique didn’t seem to be effective with Changkyun, and that kind of hit his ego. However, he saw that his cheeks of golden skin began to take on a slight carmine tone and he was satisfied. His closeness seemed to make him nervous.

And he loved that.

With renewed self-confidence, Wonho began to walk with his hands in the pockets of his black biker down the sidewalk and Changkyun followed, going two steps behind him.

The pianist hoped that his blush wouldn’t have been noticeable and put his cold hands on his cheeks to lower their temperature. He didn’t know why Wonho made him so nervous, he simply couldn’t understand.

When they left the area where they parked the car, they entered the main street of Cheongju; although it was already dark, it was crowded with people: Wonho thought that there was a pleasant night atmosphere, while to Changkyun the noise was so overwhelming.

To get to the restaurant where they had to meet up with Minhyuk and Jooheon, they were going to have to go through the crowd. Wonho stopped momentarily for the little boy to reach him so they could walk side by side.

It was on the way to the restaurant when Changkyun brought out his clumsy side; the fact that he walked with his head low made him almost hit himself with a street lamp. He later hit the sign depicting the menu of a street food stall and threw it to the ground.

After apologizing repeatedly to the owner of the stall and picking up the sign, they continued on their way. Wonho made no comment and was suppressing a smile, it was so hard not to laugh at his adorable clumsiness. Changkyun just wanted to disappear.

Luck must have been against him that day; the black-haired boy was sure that it was a sign that he shouldn’t have agreed to hang out that day.

When he thought it was not possible to make the ridiculous even more, the laces of his boots untied without realizing it and he stumbled, but managed to not fall face down on the ground at the cost of making a strange pirouette to stand.

Wonho couldn’t hold it any longer and burst into a laugh that, in any other situation, Changkyun would have considered beautiful.

"Shut up," said Changkyun feeling flustered, his cheeks like tomatoes and his fists clenched.

When his laughter subsided, he crouched in front of Changkyun and tied the laces of his shoes. Once he finished, he got up without breaking the eye contact and took his right hand gently.

"Come on, I don’t want you to kill yourself on our way," he explained with a soft smile on his rosy lips.

The boy's heart was like a hummingbird that frantically flapped its wings against his chest and he didn’t protest, letting himself be led by Wonho; he wanted to tell him that he could walk alone and that he didn’t need his help.

Changkyun didn’t like his personal space to be invaded, let alone being held by his hand without his permission. But he still didn’t want to release Wonho; he really liked the way his small hand was wrapped by the bigger one.

He felt safe and protected.

Wonho didn’t want to admit it, but the fact that he was allowed to take him by the hand made him tremendously happy. Internally, he was screaming and jumping with joy, but outside he kept his chill behavior as always.

As they approached the restaurant, Changkyun released him embarrassed while Wonho approached his friends who were waiting for them at the door to greet them cheerfully. Besides the redhead and the blond, Hyungwon was also with them, and Changkyun was glad to see him: his company was very pleasant to him.

The slender boy gave him a small hug and greeted him with a drowsy smile, standing  by him to make him less intimidated by the unenthusiastic greeting he received from Minhyuk and Jooheon.

Once inside the restaurant, they went to one of the low tables in the center and sat on the floor around them. Changkyun was between Wonho and Hyungwon, while the other two were in front of them.

He felt he was being the center of attention, as if he had a huge spotlight pointing at him. And that only caused him to shrink on the site, wishing he could get inside a shell and never go out.

After an elderly lady approached to ask what they were going to eat, they began to talk about trivial matters of the university; Changkyun only participated in the conversation nodding occasionally or laughing very discreetly.

He realized that Minhyuk talked a lot... maybe too much. And that when Jooheon smiled, two prominent dimples appeared on his cheeks that pulled down his usual intimidating appearance. Once they brought the food they ordered, Changkyun reached for his spoon to attack his favorite rice curry dish; but he couldn’t eat peacefully for a long time.

"So, Changkyun... how did you meet Wonho?"

Minhyuk's question caught him off-guard and dropped the rice from his spoon.

“Uh... I, well-”

"He was playing the piano in the auditorium and I listened to him by chance," Wonho explained, his mouth full of ramen. He decided to intervene when he saw Changkyun's stutter.

“You play the piano?” Jooheon inquired disinterestedly.

Changkyun nodded and looked down.

“Oh yeah. I’ve heard he’s really good," Hyungwon added, observing Hoseok with complicity; the brunette gave him a warning look and his ears turned red. Changkyun didn’t understand the subliminal message that these two had just shared and continued to eat his curry dish without giving it much importance.

"Wonho," Jooheon called him in a bored tone, "what happened to the chick you hooked up with last month?"

Changkyun choked on the rice and began to cough. Hyungwon hit his back and Wonho quickly served him soju so he could drink; the black-haired reached for his glass and took a couple of gulps: although the drink made his throat burn, it left a pleasant sensation and helped him to stop coughing.

Still worried about the little boy, the brunette rubbed his back in circles with delicacy. Changkyun waved his hand in the air to indicate that he was fine and he sighed with relief.

“So?” the blonde insisted, resting his head on the palm of his hand.

“We broke up,” Wonho finally answered.

The latter said it with a smile and shrugged, as if he didn’t care too much about it. But Changkyun could distinguish a bit of sadness in his expression.

"I thought so," Jooheon said, not surprised by the news.

"It seemed strange to me that you were with the same girl for more than a week," Minhyuk added, "I bet you already have found another chick… or maybe some cute guy."

The comment earned the laughter of the rest, except of Wonho and Changkyun; the older boy looked annoyed, but soon joined his friends and smiled shaking his head.

This was no secret: it was well known on campus that Wonho liked both girls and boys alike. For him it has always been something natural and, although his friends were initially surprised when they found out, that was now part of their routine and even took the liberty of joking about it.

But apparently, Changkyun was the only one in the whole university who didn’t know about it; without being able to avoid it, his head began to fill with images of Wonho.

Wonho hugging a boy.

Wonho kissing a boy.

Wonho doing other things... with a boy.

He felt his whole body heat up, and without much thought, he picked up his glass again and finished the soju in one gulp. He lifted the glass to Hoseok, telling him to serve him more.

The brunette did so and Changkyun again finished the drink in the blink of an eye. They all looked amused as the little boy lifted the glass back to Wonho, who was reluctant to fill it this time.

"Hey Changkyun, I don’t think you should-"

But before he could finish the sentence, Minhyuk snatched the bottle and served more to Changkyun.

"Let him drink," said the redhead with a smile so wide that was a little creepy, "don’t you want him to have a good time?"

Wonho didn’t know what to answer. He looked at Changkyun, who seemed pleased to see his glass full of soju, and frowned disapprovingly; he didn’t know the his alcohol’s tolerance and didn’t like the idea of getting him drunk the first night they hang out.

But then, he thought that perhaps it would help him to let go and have a better time. Finally he relaxed a little, hoping that Changkyun would be able to control himself and stop drinking once he reached his limit.

He would later realize he was wrong.


	8. Wild spirit

It wasn’t the first time Changkyun had tried soju, but he had never drunk so much before. The liquid had a sweet touch that the boy loved, and when it flowed through his throat, it left a very pleasant and intoxicating burning sensation.

The effects of alcohol soon showed up in the pianist; he had no idea what Jooheon had just said, but in his opinion it was the funniest thing ever and burst out laughing with Hyungwon.

The slender boy punched him in the arm, unable to stop laughing and Changkyun whimpered as he rubbed the sore area.

"Oh! You have dimples too!” Jooheon exclaimed excitedly as he pointed to the black-haired boy.

"Yup, yup," Changkyun said, pressing his lips together and showing his dimples to the blond.

Hyungwon squeezed his cheeks with one hand while giggling, causing the boy's lips to frown.

"Wonho, look! He looks like a duck!”

Everyone laughed again at the comparison; Wonho watched the panorama before him with a smile and resting his head on the palm of his hand. He was the only one sober at the table: he only drank a glass of soju because he had to drive back.

The brunette was glad to see that Changkyun was having a good time with his friends, but what he liked the most was that he could finally hear the little boy's laugh: it was very high pitched compared to his low tone of voice. It was like listening to a beautiful melody that would be played only once and never repeat itself.

"I don’t look like a duck," Changkyun said with a pout, rubbing his cheeks. Hoseok watched him tenderly: this boy was too adorable. “Hyung, hyung," he called Wonho, pulling at the sleeve of his jacket. "I’m not a duck, right? Tell them!"

“Of course you aren’t.”

Changkyun smirked at the answer and clung to his arm, surprising Wonho in the process.

"Now he's a koala," said Jooheon jovially before he drank his glass of soju. Minhyuk nodded and laughed slightly, but narrowed his eyes without taking his eyes off Changkyun: the boy was still not to his liking, however, the alcohol was helping him to tolerate his presence.

Wonho's heart was beating like crazy because of Changkyun’s hug. He swallowed hard and tried to push him away, but the younger protested and hugged him even harder, so he gave up.

His ears turned red and heat invaded his body; he couldn’t take off his jacket since he had a koala attached to his arm, so he resigned himself to roasting from heat the rest of the night. He felt his heart go even faster when he heard Changkyun start hiccupping: he was _freaking adorable_.

It was going to be a long night.

"What do a duck say…" Changkyun murmured with a serious expression, interrupted by his own hiccup, "to his annoying duck friend?" Everyone looked at him expectantly for what he was going to say. “Duck off”.

It was a couple of seconds before everyone but Hoseok laughed scandalously. The older boy couldn’t believe that he had just told such a bad joke and looked at him with disbelieving: he was sure that, if his friends weren’t drunk, they wouldn’t find the pun that funny.

He didn’t expect Changkyun to be the kind of person who’d tell bad jokes.

Hyungwon hit the little boy again laughing like crazy and Changkyun finally let go of his arm to give back the hits, also laughing. Wonho took advantage of the moment and took off his jacket, leaving himself alone with his plaid shirt: taking off the jacket helped him feel less overwhelmed, like he could breathe again.

It was then when the owner of the restaurant walked by their table and looked at them frowning at the commotion they were causing. It was obvious that she wanted them to go away and disturb another place. Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea.

"Guys," Wonho called out with a sigh. But the rest didn’t pay much attention to him and continued to laugh and drink. “Guys!” This time he caught their attention. “We'd better go somewhere else.”

“Yeah!” Minhyuk said excitedly.

"Where do you want to go?" Jooheon asked, pouring on his glass the remaining drops of the soju’s fifth bottle they had ordered. Hyungwon rubbed his chin thoughtfully and raised his hand when he came up with an idea.

“Karaoke!” he exclaimed convinced. All agreed with the suggestion and began to rise from the ground between wobbles and giggles; Wonho picked up his jacket and made the move to stand, but realized that Changkyun was still sitting, staring at nothing and still hiccupping.

He put a hand on his shoulder with concern.

“Changkyun?”

The black-haired boy turned slowly toward him: he looked into Wonho's worried face and smiled lazily, jumping a little while hiccupping. His head was spinning and his eyelids felt heavy; even so, managed to maintain eye contact.

His brown eyes lowered to the hand Hoseok had rested on his shoulder and ran through his arm slowly.

_His arms are so beautiful… and big…_

He wanted to taste them... they looked appetizing. Changkyun leaned forward with his gaze fixed on the thin plaid shirt; Wonho didn’t know how to react in time, and before he could get away, the child had already stuck his teeth in his arm.

The scream of pain that came from his mouth echoed in the restaurant and caught the attention of everyone. Hyungwon laughed and pointed at them.

"He’s a wild puppy in the end!"

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

If Changkyun and Jooheon didn’t get along well before, that night in karaoke seemed like lifelong friends. When choosing a song, they realized that they shared the same musical tastes: Wonho thought that if they were to form a duet, they would have a future as rappers.

They weren’t bad at all.  

They sang and rapped until they ran out of breath, and when they finally got tired, they threw themselves on the couch and made the choirs for Hyungwon and Minhyuk.

The only thing he could do in this situation was laughing; although his arm ached from the bite he had received, he caught the energy and good humor of his friends, helping him to forget the 'accident' they had had in the restaurant.

Not to mention that Changkyun was leaning on his shoulder... that also contributed a lot to his good mood.

As the night passed, tiredness began to grow in everyone of them. There came a point where the only one who sang was Minhyuk: it was a sad ballad, and he was lying on the couch, singing with a cracked voice.

A smile crossed Wonho's face as he turned his neck to Changkyun and found that he was half asleep. His eyelids threatened to close at any moment and his cheeks were very rosy: the elder didn’t even pay attention to the strong smell of alcohol emanating from the little boy and keep watching him as if he was the seventh wonder of the world: he seemed so vulnerable... he had the big desire of wrapping him in his arms and protect him.

When the song ended, there was silence in the small karaoke room, interrupted only by Hyungwon's big yawns: everyone was exhausted. The euphoric effect of the alcohol had already faded.

Seeing that it was already five o'clock in the morning, they decided it would be best to go home. His friends’ state was quite acceptable: at least they were able to leave the establishment by their own feet. But that night it became clear that Changkyun's tolerance for alcohol was not very high.

Wonho had to carry him on his back because the boy, despite being half asleep, began to say with a pout that he didn’t feel his legs and that he couldn’t get up. He threw a tantrum and left him no choice.

Already in the cold of the street, the brunette offered the rest to take them in his car; Minhyuk agreed, but Hyungwon insisted that they could walk. The slender boy looked at him with a sly smile and winked at him before saying good-bye and leaving with the rest.

Wonho rolled his eyes and stared at them until they turned the corner of the street: at least he didn’t have to worry about them getting a car. Jooheon and Minhyuk shared a flat within a five-minute walk, and Hyungwon lived in a student residence also very close.

With a sigh, he hoped the boy behind him to hold him better and began to walk towards the street where they had parked. He didn’t know if Changkyun was awake or not, but his calm, warm breath hitting his neck was giving him goose bumps.

They reached his car in no time; once standing next to the vehicle, he lowered the drowsy boy carefully and helped him get into the passenger seat. He bent over his body to fasten his belt, and when he was about to rise up, a small laugh made him stand still.

Their faces were very close... so _freaking_ close. He looked closely at Changkyun: the flush of his cheeks hadn’t yet faded, and the smile that pierced his lips caused two tiny dimples to appear.

"What are you laughing at?" Wonho murmured, getting lost in the contrary's features.

The boy shook his head without losing his smile and narrowed his eyes.

"I don’t know," he said, half-gone. "I think you’re tickling me."

That said, he rubbed his neck and giggled again. Wonho realized that, as he was breathing so close to his skin, it must have triggered his tickling.

His heart was beating like crazy, and his eyes dropped unconsciously to his thin lips, which had a slight reddish tone: he wanted to touch them, he wanted to kiss them...

_I want to kiss him so badly…_

He swallowed hard and, making a titanic effort, the brunette pulled away and straightened, closing the passenger door and surrounding the car to go to his seat.

Wonho took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He had to calm down: Changkyun was drunk, it was’t okay to take advantage of his condition. Although he had had the opportunity to kiss him and fulfill the wishes he had had almost since the first moment he saw him, it wasn’t the right thing to do.

But he couldn’t continue with his inner reasoning as his door burst open. Before he knew it, Changkyun sat on his lap; he was so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn’t even realized that the pianist had left the car.

"Wha- what are you doing?" Wonho stammered nervously. Changkyun laughed again like a little kid who was making mischief and placed his little hands on his shoulders.

“Checking if you have tickles.”

Then he bent over him and pressed his rosy lips in his neck. Alarmed, Hoseok grabbed him by the waist to try to pull him away, but Changkyun opened his mouth and left a wet kiss on his skin, leaving him completely out of action.

His body became weak and, slowly, his muscles relaxed and he finally stopped resisting.

The ticklish sensation on his neck was intoxicating, and he couldn’t help but to caress Changkyun’s hips as he shallowed hard. Wonho threw back his head with his eyes closed and he let out a trembling sigh: he didn’t want to enjoy that, he didn’t have to... Everything was wrong. However, his conscience faded as soon as Changkyun traced his sensitive skin with his soft lips.

No, Hoseok hadn’t been conscious since he'd known him. That cute puppy had turned his world upside down.

And now he wanted to destroy his.


	9. I'll protect you

Changkyun's rosy lips danced across his neck, and the way Wonho felt his weight against his crotch made his brain stop functioning. It just felt _too_ _good_.

"Chang- Ah... Changkyun" he called him, trying to fight back the heat he was feeling inside and that was starting to consume him. But the little boy didn't listen, so he tried again with a trembling voice, closing his eyes as he felt Changkyun waving his hips lightly "Fuck- Please... Changkyun, ah!" Just then, the puppy bit timidly his pierced earlobe and he moaned a little, grabbing his thin waist and shivering at the pleasing sensation that ran across his ear and neck.

He was going crazy.

But then, Changkyun giggled against his neck and he returned to reality, snapping his eyes open. What the hell were they doing?

He grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him away gently. The black-haired boy frowned at him, pouting, not understanding why he had pushed him away.

The older boy sighed and closed his eyes tightly; if Changkyun kept putting that face on, he was afraid to give in again and let himself be dragged by him. So it was better to not look at him so he could think clearly.

"Changkyun..." he murmured, barely making eye contact again, "go back to your seat."

The boy tilted his head in confusion, as if he didn’t understand what he had just said.

“Why?”

_Because if you don’t get off my lap right now, I'll start kissing that cute little mouth of yours and I won’t stop._

“Because it's too late and we have to go, come on, return to your seat.”

Changkyun ignored the reasoning and lifted his hands up to Wonho's ears, caressing his piercings.

"I don’t want to," he said with conviction, absorbed in the numerous earrings on his fingers.

"Changkyun," the brunette persisted patiently, holding the pianist's hands in his so he would stop playing around. "It's time to go home."

The seriousness that he used in his words made the child look at him with a mixture of sadness and stun.

“Home?” he repeated in a whisper. Wonho nodded with a tired smile. “Ca- can I really go home?”

Because of the trembling on his voice, Hoseok knew something was wrong. His smile faded away and looked at him worriedly, still holding his little hands.

“What’s wrong?”

Changkyun suddenly looked frightened and looked away; it took him a few seconds to answer.

"I-I want to go home... but I don’t want these people to find me and hurt me.”

_Those people? Had someone hurt him?_

The thought of Changkyun suffering made Wonho angry, but the concern far outweighed the other feeling.

“Who?” Hoseok asked, his heart beating fast in rage and concern, placing his hands softly on his cheeks so he’d look at him. "Who hurt you?"

Changkyun shook his head and, trembling, leaned against his chest and clung to his jacket.

“Wonho... take me home.”

The brunette remained motionless for a few moments until he finally embraced Changkyun in his arms. He lifted a doubtful hand to his black hair and caressed it carefully.

"It's okay... I'm with you."

Hearing these words, the boy's muscles relaxed and snuggled against him. Wonho squeezed him harder in response; within him, the need of protecting that helpless and innocent boy grew bigger and bigger.

His heart was so warm and exited, but at the same time he was calm; Wonho didn’t remember the last time a simple hug had made him feel something like that.

He wanted to protect him, he wanted to be by his side... He wouldn’t let anyone hurt him ever again.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Kihyun was spinning in bed unable to sleep. He turned to look at the digital clock on his bedside table and saw that it was five-thirty; Changkyun hadn’t returned yet and he was beginning to worry.

_What if something happened to him? What if the people he hanged out with were a bad influence?_

He couldn’t help thinking like a mother: since he knew him, he felt that protecting the boy of glasses was his obligation, as a kind of maternal instinct that was born from within. But it wasn’t his fault, Changkyun was too vulnerable and needed someone to take care of him until he learned to defend himself.

And what dangers could lie in wait of his friend? Well, mostly, the fourth-year magpies that enjoyed succulent meat freshly arrived at the university. But Kihyun was worried about one of those magpies in particular: Wonho.

The pink-haired boy couldn’t finish mentally reciting the list of things he didn’t like about Hoseok, as his phone vibrated on the surface of the next table.

Alarmed, he straightened and picked up his cell phone to see the message he had just received. As he read, his frown creased more and more, until he threw the device on the bed and rose hastily from the mattress.

It was a message from that magpie, sent from Changkyun's cell phone.

He was disappointed, but mostly angry: his roommate was going to receive a good scold tomorrow morning. He put on a jacket and left the room, went down to the entrance of the residence and opened the door, finding Wonho carrying a sleeping and drunk Changkyun on his back.

The brunette smiled awkwardly at him, but the snort that emanated from Kihyun was enough for his smile to fade away and bite his lip with guilt.

"I-I shouldn’t have let him drink this much." As he didn't receive an answer, Wonho swallowed and continued speaking. “It was my fault, I'm so sorry.”

Then, Wonho bowed slightly in apology; Changkyun made a few noises when he straightened and snuggled his head against Hoseok's neck. The elder hoped him to hold him better and Changkyun let out a pleased sound.

"Can I…? Uh, could I come in?" asked Wonho carefully, almost afraid that the boy who was giving them a cold look would slam the door in their noses.

Kihyun folded his arms at the request and narrowed his eyes; after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, he stepped aside and let him in: he saved the comments for later.

They climbed the stairs to the second floor and, once inside his room, Kihyun sat down on the sofa in the living room and pointed his chin at the bedroom. Wonho hesitated momentarily before nodding and heading to the room, thinking in the meantime that the small boy was very scary.

He turned on the light with the switch on the wall and saw that there were two beds, but he knew immediately that Changkyun’s was the one on the left: the sheet music on the pillow betrayed him. Carefully, he left the black-haired boy on the mattress and, after placing the sheets and comics on the bedside table, took his boots off and laid him more comfortably, wrapping him with the blanket.

Wonho struggled between taking off his denim jacket or not, but finally decided to leave it on since he was afraid to wake him if he did.

He took a long sigh and sat on the edge of the bed, watching Changkyun's deep sleep: he was curled up and little sighs escaped his mouth. His face showed absolute peace.

A tender smile formed on Hoseok's lips; he couldn’t help thinking that Changkyun looked like a baby when he slept. Unconsciously, he lifted a hand to his cheek and caressed it timidly.

"Silly kid..." he murmured with loving eyes.

His golden, soft skin invited his fingers to explore it, this time drawing the bridge of his pretty nose to the finer lips. His heart shuddered as he felt Changkyun's warm breath: for a second, he regretted not having kissed him in the car. He could have took him to his apartment to continue what they had started.

But deep down, he knew he had done the right thing.

If he could, Wonho would stay up all night watching the little boy sleep soundly. However, he was aware that Kihyun was in the living room, waiting for him to leave.

He rose heavily from the bed and turned off the light in the room, closing the door quietly behind him. With a resigned sigh, Wonho walked by Kihyun with the intention of leaving, but his voice stopped him halfway.

"What do you want from him?"

Wonho turned toward him, surprised by the question.

“What?”

Kihyun took a deep breath and continued to speak from the sofa, not looking directly at him.

"Changkyun has already suffered enough, so I’m asking you nicely to stay away from him."

He felt a prick of pain in his heart, and he remembered how the pianist clung to him in the car, begging him to take him home. Wonho didn’t know his past, but he knew that he wanted to heal his wounds, no matter how deep or light they might be.

"I'm not going to hurt him," he said with conviction. Kihyun shook his head with a wry smile, as if he didn’t believe him. “I don’t know who hurt him or why... but believe me when I tell you that I’ll never allow it to happen again.”

Kihyun was silent and looked at him at last: he analyzed Hoseok with suspicion, trying to find a trail of lies in his words or his expression. But all he could see was his sincerity.

Did Wonho really want to be with Changkyun in a genuine way? A person like him?

“Get out.”

It was all he could say at that moment.

Wonho lowered his eyes to the ground, but finally left the place; maybe he should follow his advice and stay away from Changkyun. Who knows, maybe that would be best for both of them.

But his mother and all his friends knew that he was not the type to be influenced by other people's opinions. And this wasn’t going to be an exception.


	10. I wouldn't mind

“Cheer up, baby! Cheer up, baby!”

Changkyun gave a small jump on his bed because of the loud song that was ringing in the bedroom and half opened his eyes; he saw that Kihyun was at his bedside, holding his mobile with a frown. The black haired boy groaned before hiding his head under the pillow, hoping to isolate himself from the noise coming from his roommate's phone.

But it didn’t help, as Kihyun slipped his cell phone under the pillow. Changkyun rummaged through the sheets with annoyance and covered his ears with his hands; he felt as if someone was beating his head with a hammer.

“Turn it off…”

“What did you say? I haven’t heard you," said Kihyun, with remarkable anger in his voice.

The boy muttered a couple of curses in annoyance. He considered picking up the phone and throwing it to the floor, but he wasn’t ready to face the terrible fury of its owner if he broke it.

Finally, he straightened up rubbing his tired eyes and Kihyun picked up his cell phone, removing the song. He folded his arms and looked at Changkyun with disapproval; the pianist massaged his temples and it took him a while to realize how he was being watched.

_Great... now it comes an interrogation._

“What?” Changkyun asked playing dumb.

“Oh, nothing. I was just wondering how was your night with Wonho.”

The irony in his words was obvious. The memories of the night before were very blurred, but he hadn’t forgotten the impulse of biting Wonho’s arm. At the moment it seemed amusing, but now he regretted the moment he decided to drink that delicious soju.

Changkyun's cheeks flushed with the shame of his actions and he pursed his lips, resigning himself to Kihyun’s lecturing. Every syllable that came out of his roommate’s lips rumbled in his skull and only made his headache worse; he put a hand to his forehead as he continued to listen in silence.

His brain only managed to understand some words, among which were ‘drunk’, ‘magpie’, ‘player’ and ‘bad influence’.

At that moment, he could only think about how to face Hoseok after his behavior of the day before. He would definitely not be able to look him in the eye.

"I just hope you know that he doesn’t want to be just your friend, don’t trust a player like him. Hey... are you listening to me? Changkyun!”

That took him out of his daydream and he looked at him a little stunned. The older boy took a deep breath and closed his eyes, swallowing his anger and trying to be more patient with his friend and his terrible hungover.

"I can’t believe it... since when are you the kind of person who comes home at five in the morning drunk and unable to stand?"

Actually, that would be pretty normal for a person his age. Changkyun was eighteen, old enough to go out to drink and have a good time. But the problem came when he got drunk with the most popular guy on campus who had a reputation for hooking up with a different person every day.

"I'm sorry..." he said in a distressed voice. Kihyun looked at him for a few seconds and sighed: he didn’t like always being the bad guy either. However, an idea crossed his mind, and it was too tempting to use it as a little punishment for his friend.

"If you’re really sorry, you'll have to do me a favor."

Changkyun frowned at the request: something told him that this favor wasn’t going to please him.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

On Monday morning, Changkyun slipped into the skin of a ninja and put on the hood of his big sweatshirt to prevent Wonho from seeing him. As he approached the entrance of the faculty and didn’t see him, he sighed with relief and continued on his way.

The little boy had considered the possibility of skipping class, but Kihyun wouldn’t have allow him. Remembering his roommate, the favor he asked him last Saturday came to his mind.

_"This Friday there’ll be a play for children. One of the main actors got sick and won’t be able to go, and I’m not free that day to replace him. I think you would be a good candidate for the role."_

As much as Changkyun insisted that he wasn’t an actor, Kihyun didn’t listen to reasons, arguing that he had helped him many times to rehearse and that he would do well. Obviously, his friend asked the favor just to annoy him.

And Changkyun always had a hard time saying _no_.

To his good luck, he didn’t see Wonho in the hallways of the faculty. When he reached his classroom and went to take a seat, he noticed that Jooheon's desk was empty: he probably missed classes.

At mealtime, he saw Hoseok's friends at the back of the cafe sitting at a table, which meant that the brunette was around. He bought the first thing he saw at the bar counter and ran to eat it in the bathrooms.

He felt like in high school, hiding in the toilets so he wouldn’t meet those people. He couldn’t be more pathetic, but it was better than facing Wonho.

When he finished the last class of the day at five in the afternoon, he didn’t even bother to take off his glasses and left the classroom in a hurry to return to the residence as soon as possible.

But of course his good fortune had a limit. In front of the faculty there was a bus parked, and at his door were several people gathered. By the time he realized that Wonho and his three friends were among those people, it was too late. The tallest of them had already seen him and waved his hand, motioning for him to approach them.

Changkyun froze, not knowing what to do. It would be rude to ignore him and pass by, but he was tempted to do so; he swallowed hard, and finally approached them hesitantly.

He didn’t dare to raise his head even when Hyungwon tossed his hair in greeting. Wonho's stare was so intense that he got more embarrassed.

"What's up, Changkyunnie?" asked the slender boy excitedly. He just shrugged his shoulders without looking at him.

"How was the hangover the other day?" Jooheon asked, amused.

The black haired boy raised his head slightly and met Wonho’s dark brown eyes. His pulse shot up and nervousness swept over him as his pink lips gave him a shy smile: he was handsome as always, wearing a striped shirt with turtleneck, and his caramel hair falling into his beautiful eyes in a messy but casual way.

"It- it was fine," Changkyun finally answered the blonde's question, "I mean, it wasn’t.”

Hyungwon and Jooheon laughed at the reply, Minhyuk smirked at him and Wonho looked at him with concern. The brunette moved to stand beside him and rested a hand on his back.

“Are you feeling better now?” he asked in a low voice so that only he could hear. The intensity of Hoseok's gaze made Changkyun's legs begin to tremble: if he didn’t move away from him, he was afraid of collapsing in the ground.

But the black-haired boy didn’t walk away and nodded weakly, unable to take his eyes from his, being too conscious of his fingers pressing the low zone of his back. Wonho smiled warmly and rubbed him one last time before Minhyuk's tongue flicker made everyone look at him.

"When are we going to get on the bus?" asked the redhead impatiently.

"Yeah, I'm tired of waiting," Jooheon added.

“Tired? But you didn’t even go to class today ‘cause your lazy ass stayed in bed," Hyungwon said, folding his arms.

"Look who’s talking," the blond replied with a frown.

Changkyun's expression showed confusion. He still didn’t know what they were waiting for at the doors of the bus, but the fact that all the girls from Wonho’s club were there too gave him a slight idea of what was going on.

"We’re going to a kindergarten to take care of the children, my friends wanted to join too" Wonho explained, leaning toward him, while his friends kept arguing about who was the most lazy one of them. Changkyun remembered that Wonho had asked him two weeks ago to go with him to this excursion, and he had accepted. “Would you like to come?”

Hoseok made the timid request with a small smile, but afraid of being rejected. He wanted to spend more time with Changkyun, and he didn’t want the puppy to push him away because of what happened the other day in the car. If necessary, he would lie and tell him that he had no interest in him.

It was better to be friends with him than to be nothing.

The little boy felt his cheeks heated by the older boy's closeness. His angelic face was watching him closely, and he couldn’t help but stare at Wonho’s pretty pink lips.

He didn’t even have time to scold himself mentally for looking at his lips so closely since he was interrupted by the club coordinator, who got off the bus to tell them that they could come in; Wonho continued to look at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.

Changkyun always had a hard time saying _no_.

But he had just discovered that, when it came to Wonho, it was impossible to refuse.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

"How about I read you a story?" Changkyun asked the kid with whom he was sitting on the kindergarten colored carpet. The little boy shook his head and pouted: it seemed he was about to burst into tears. “You don’t want me to?” he insisted, trying to soften his voice and gently rubbing his tiny arm.

The child again denied and began to cry; Changkyun panicked and wiped the tears.

"Please, don’t cry," he said in distress. “Come on, let's play something fun, okay?”

The sobs intensified and the black-haired boy bit his lip, not knowing what to do. He looked up at Wonho, who was a few feet away from him, drawing with a little girl lying on the floor. The intense crying caught his attention and gave Changkyun an amused stare before stroking the child's hair and getting up to help the boy in trouble.

He sat down with them and pinched the kid’s cheek tenderly.

“What's happening here? Why are you crying?”

"Him… I-I don’t like him."

Then he hugged Wonho, who laughed softly and patted his back. Changkyun felt terrible about himself: he had confirmed his suspicions that, in general, all the children hated him.

"Was it Changkyun who made you cry?" asked Wonho, hugging him and looking directly at the pianist. “He’s so mean…”

Changkyun let out a small snort and Hoseok smiled widely. When the kid finally calmed down, he ran to play with his friends without looking back.

"I told you... my voice scares them," Changkyun murmured with a pout, looking down at his knees. The brunette sighed and leaned close to him, giving him a slight push with the shoulder to try to cheer him up.

"Come on, don’t be like that. It's not your fault that your voice terrifies them this mu-”

Before he could go on, Changkyun hit him in the arm. Wonho wanted to laugh at Changkyun's adorable angry face, but he had just hit him in the area where he had been bitten on Saturday and couldn’t suppress a wince.

“Oh god, I'm sorry! Are you okay?” the worried boy apologized as soon as he realized where he had hit him.

"It's all right," Wonho reassured him, smiling at him to hide the pain he felt on his arm.

Changkyun looked at him feeling terribly guilty and began to play with his fingers: he wanted to apologize for the other day and wasn’t quite sure how to do it.

"I-I... wanted to tell you..." he began to explain clumsily as Wonho listened intently to him, "Sorry for the other day.”

All the muscles of the older boy tensed; he didn’t know whether he was apologizing for biting him or for kissing him in the car. He prayed it wasn’t the second option, because he knew that there would come a 'I didn’t know what I was doing' or a 'forget what happened'.

“Why?” he asked casually, though he was afraid on the inside.

"For... biting you,” he explained with a very quiet voice.

Wonho was relieved: it was better that Changkyun didn’t remember the other day... However, he was a bit disappointed. He knew that he had kissed him without being in his five senses, but deep down he longed that he would have done so by being aware of it, and not by the effects of alcohol.

"It doesn’t matter," he replied, dismissing the matter. His words didn’t calm Changkyun, who was still looking at his knees with sadness.

Wonho stared at his guilty expression and narrowed his eyelids, analyzing his rosy cheeks, his catlike eyes that avoided eye contact and his long, dark lashes.

Just then, a secret desire was born in his body and he swallowed hard. Now, he wanted him to remember what he did in the car to see him embarrassed by it. He wanted to see how he started stuttering. He wanted those cute lips to be licked by his pink tongue because of the nervousness.

He _wanted him_.

Without thinking clearly, he began to lean towards Changkyun, and didn’t stop in spite of the evident surprise in his face.

"You know..." he whispered very close to his ear, licking his lips, "I wouldn’t mind you biting me again.”


	11. Big Bad Wolf

Wonho's cheek brushed against his, and his warm breath settled on his neck and ear, bristling his skin in the process. It reminded him of something... something that happened more specifically in a car three days ago.

Suddenly, Changkyun saw himself sitting on Hoseok's lap, kissing his neck, laughing childishly… and fucking grinding with him.

The world seemed to have stopped. He couldn’t hear any noise from the kindergarten: neither the cries nor the laughter of children, nor the complaints of the monitor because it was too hot in the room and she was sweating, not even the strange sounds that Minhyuk did imitating a puppy to make a kid laugh came to his ears. He was only aware of his frantic heartbeat.

_God... what the hell did I do?_

Wonho finally backed off with a discreet smile and Changkyun was unable to utter or move. He stared at him for a few seconds with his eyes wide and his mouth ajar; Wonho raised an eyebrow, expecting a reaction from him.

If Changkyun said something now, he would probably only stutter a couple of incoherent words. In the end, the embarrassed boy rose in silence and went to a corner of the kindergarten. He sat on the floor facing the wall and reached a small toy piano to his left.

Wonho watched him from the same spot and sighed: perhaps he had been too straightforward and scared him.

But he wouldn’t give up. He was determined to make Changkyun his, even if that meant gathering all the patience he had.

A girl from his club who approached the brunette pulled him out of his thoughts: apparently, she had problems with a child who wouldn’t stop crying. Meanwhile, Changkyun stared at nothing as he tapped two keys with his index finger on loop.

He didn’t even flinch when a little girl approached him and sat down next to him, grabbing the fabric of his sweatshirt.

“Oppa, do you know how to play the piano?” she asked excitedly. Changkyun said nothing and continued to press both keys. The kid frowned and shook his arm slightly. “Can you play twinkle, twinkle little star?” she insisted with a pout.

As she continued without an answer, the girl snorted and crossed her arms. Another child came up to them and studied Changkyun's face closely.

"What's wrong with this hyung?" he asked in surprise. “His face looks like a tomato.”

Changkyun did his best to breathe normally, but he couldn’t calm his rushing pulse and felt his cheeks burning: he could only think about what he did on Friday... and Wonho's offering to bite him again.

"I don’t know... let's go. This oppa is very weird," the little girl said before the two of them left to keep playing.

_I wouldn’t mind you biting me again... I wouldn’t mind... I wouldn’t mind..._

That phrase was repeated over and over again in his head and it didn’t go away. He didn’t want to give importance to what had just happened, he wanted to ignore his heart and how he was feeling in that moment. However, a question broke through his mind and made him finally stop playing the toy piano.

_I like... Wonho?_

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun watched the costume that laid on the bench in the center of the room and which he would have to wear for the performance. He was in the small changing rooms in the backstage, and there were only a few minutes left for the play. He sighed with resignation: this time, Kihyun had gone too far with the favor he asked.

During that week, Changkyun rehearsed many hours for Friday's play; it turned out to be a good way to get distracted and thus avoid thinking about the ridiculously attractive boy who had taken his sleep over the last few days. He had to keep his mind away from his pink and plump lips, his pale porcelain skin, his freaking cute ears, his beautiful smile and his...

_Shit._

He was already thinking about him again.

Changkyun clicked his tongue and rubbed his face, not wanting to accept the fact that’ve been hanging around his head lately: he didn’t want to assimilate that Wonho had flirted with him in the kindergarten.

He surely was playing around, just for fun. Yeah, that must’ve been it. It was impossible that a boy like Hoseok would look at someone like him in _that_ different kind of way.

Changkyun shook his head: anyway, he wasn’t attracted to boys. Or so he thought.

He had only fallen in love twice in his life, the first time was with his primary schoolmate and later with Julia, an American girl who came from exchange to his high school. On neither occasion he dared to confess his feelings; in fact, he had never kissed anyone. Or at least a proper kiss... the time he shared a bottle of water with Julia didn’t count.

He had never felt anything for a boy. But Wonho was turning his whole word upside down, and made him doubt himself.

A knock on the door made him wince. A man spoke on the other side of the wall.

"Just fifteen minutes left, please hurry."

"Okay!” Changkyun replied. The owner of the languid voice was the coordinator of the theater club, a middle-aged man a bit chubby and who didn’t take his work too seriously. He only attended the rehearsals once, but he didn’t pay much attention to them.

Changkyun began to remove his clothes with hurry. Pulling off his pants, he took his cell phone from his outer pocket and stared at it for a while; he hadn’t contacted Wonho since Monday, but he had exchanged some messages with Hyungwon: just that morning he had wished him luck for his performance.

He smiled discreetly and put the phone together with his other clothes in one of the green lockers of the room. He put on the big brown costume, knotted his sneakers, and looked at himself in the small mirror on the back of the narrow locker door.

He pulled on his hood and touched the ears of his wolf costume. He had to try to be terrifying in order to play his role as Little Red Riding Hood's villain, but it was going to be difficult: Changkyun wasn’t scary even if he tried, and even less with the ridiculous appearance he had at that moment. Maybe his voice would scare the kids.

"Grandma, why are your teeth so long and sharp?" he said in a high pitched voice as he saw his reflection. “They're for eating you better," he replied to himself in a very low tone, trying to sound frightening.

He sighed heavily. Kihyun had definitely gone too far.

Again, there was a soft knock on the door.

“I'm coming!” he exclaimed before rushing to open it, hoping to meet the coordinator. But it wasn’t him.

Why of so many people in the world, it had to be precisely Wonho who was before his eyes? Why was the perfect boy with his leather jacket, his choker, his sparkling piercings and beautiful smile in front of him and not the theater coordinator? Why was he so unlucky?

Hoseok's eyes widened with disbelief, and Changkyun found himself unable to even move. They remained silent for some eternal seconds, and the little boy considered slamming the door in his nose.

Finally, the brunette bit his lip to suppress a giggle and put his hands in the back pockets of his jeans.

"Changkyun... you look very…" He paused to find the right word, "handsome.” Changkyun just stood paralyzed: he wanted to run away, but his legs had become petrified and didn’t respond.

Wonho cleared his throat and put a fist to his lips to hide his smile.

"Hyungwon told me that you were going to participate in a play," he continued, making an obvious effort not to laugh, "but I wasn’t expecting... well, I didn’t think..."

Wonho couldn’t continue because a giggle escaped from his lips. The embarrassment and the awkwardness that Changkyun was feeling was too much, and with the last regaining control of his body, he decided to try to dodge and pass by his side; which he would have done if Hoseok hadn’t stood in his way.

"Hey, little puppy!"

Changkyun wanted to get out of there. He stepped back and began a sort of chase through the small room where he circled the bench to distract the brunette and be able to get out of there.

But just before he passed through the door frame, Wonho kept him from escaping by grabbing the tail of his costume.

“Wait wait!” he insisted, pulling at him. “Please, Changkyun.” Just by his voice he knew he was desperate and he felt bad.

“What do you want?” he asked after a few seconds, not turning to face Wonho.

"I just- I wanted to talk a little bit." Changkyun’s muscles tensed and he kept listening. “But I didn’t mean to laugh, really, forgive me.”

Changkyun's heart was pounding fast: he didn’t want to hear his apologies. All he wanted was to find a logical explanation of Wonho's apparent interest in him; an interest that went beyond friendship.

Taking a deep breath, the dark-haired boy decided to ask what the hell happened at the kindergarten.

"What was that thing… the other day?"

“What…?”

Changkyun closed his eyes and gathered all his courage to continue.

“Look, I-I don’t want to be part of your games. If you're doing it just to make fun of me... please stop.”

Wonho opened his eyes wide and finally released him from the grip. He couldn’t articulate a word since the boy continued to speak, without giving him time to answer.

"I don’t know what you're doing to me, b-but... when you're near me I feel strange," he confessed, clenching his fists tightly. “It's like I have a fever, I can’t think clearly and I can’t- I can’t stand it.”

The boy uttered his speech hurriedly, he wasn’t even clear on what the purpose was to let it all go. But Changkyun needed to say it, let out all that was going on in his head since he knew Wonho. He refused to think that what he felt was attraction.

The silence that came later only made him more nervous; he was about to turn to see Wonho's expression, but as he felt his strong body stuck to his back, his pulse stopped and he stood completely still.

Wonho reached over Changkyun's shoulder to close the door slowly; then he raised his fingers to lower his hood, letting his warm breath caress his neck.

An electric shiver swept over Changkyun when he felt that Wonho had given him a small kiss on the back of his neck.

"You really don’t know what you feel?" he asked in a very low voice, resting his hands on the boy's shoulders to turn him gently. His eyes finally met and Changkyun swallowed; Wonho had his eyelids half closed and looked at him with an overwhelming intensity, as if he was about to eat him.

Desire was etched in his brown eyes, which strangely seemed darker than he remembered; he was so close that he had to rest his back on the door for fear that his legs would fail him. Changkyun shook his head weakly, though he really knew exactly what he felt.

"Do you want me… to teach you?"

The second question made his heart skip a beat: he was cornered and part of his being wanted to run away, but the feeling of curiosity was much stronger and more intense. He licked his lips and stared into Wonho's mouth, wondering what would it feel like being eaten by those hungry and fleshy lips.

After a few moments of silence, and to his own surprise, Changkyun nodded. He didn’t quite know what he was agreeing to, but Wonho's smile made him forget the consequences of all that. The older boy put one knee between his legs and lowered his hands to his waist, pressing him against the door.

Hoseok began to lean toward his lips, and when they were only a few millimeters apart, he kissed the right side of his mouth slowly.

He left his lips there for a few moments, in which Changkyun realized that he was holding his breath. The brunette leaned his forehead against the contrary’s while watching amused as the child took a breath, revealing his inexperience in these subjects.

"Breathe..." Wonho murmured before leaving a trail of lazy, wet kisses along his cheek and chin. He began to draw small circles in the lower part of Changkyun's back, causing his skin to bristling and holding tight to his leather jacket.

The pianist let out a trembling sigh that didn’t go unnoticed by Wonho, who laughed lightly and watched as he rubbed his nose with his. He enjoyed the little shiver on ChangKyun’s body when his hands began to make his way down on his back.

ChangKyun looked so helpless and innocent... his cheeks were red, he was breathing hard and his lips were rosy and wet: he wanted to bite them, taste them, suck and play with them. The little boy’s hot breath on his mouth made him close his eyes for a moment just to open them again while he pressed his hips against his.

Above all, he wanted to corrupt his cute little body at every imaginable level.

And, finally, Wonho shortened the distance between them and kissed him.


	12. Two pieces of a puzzle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm already back scascdc just wanted to apologize cause I ended up uploadig this fic almost daily SORRY NOT SORRY I'm on fire translating it *sigh* enjoy <3333

Wonho was good kisser, and he knew it. All his previous partners had told him, and not that he liked to brag about it, but he considered it as one of his strong points.

He had given many types of kisses, from the most innocent to the most passionate ones. The warm feeling that a pair of lips left over his was unique to Hoseok.

Ever since he met Changkyun in the faculty hall and heard him utter his adorable confession of love, he wished to be the person to whom those words were addressed. He wanted to be the only one who could listen to them and, above all, he wanted to kiss him.

And now he could do it at last.

Wonho merely laid his lips on the other's gently, almost afraid to frighten him; the black haired boy was so nervous that he pressed his mouth in a thin line and closed his eyes tightly: he had no idea what to do, so he stood paralyzed like a statue.

Their hearts beat frantically; the elder felt as if some fireworks had exploded inside him, while the younger still didn’t process what was happening.

Seeing how tense he was, Wonho lifted one of the hands resting on Changkyun's waist to his neck, beginning to caress it with his thumb. The muscles of the little boy ended up relaxing as the seconds passed, and the brunette used this to open his mouth and give a little movement to the kiss.

Gradually, Changkyun's lips ceased to be tight and he let himself go, corresponding in a timid, clumsy way. Wonho tilted his head and grabbed the back of his neck for better accessibility, enjoying and slowly savoring the mouth he had longed to taste.

God only knew how much he craved for this moment; he had often imagined what it would be like to kiss Changkyun. On more than one occasion, his mind had gone far beyond a simple kiss.

But no fantasy surpassed reality. Changkyun had a sweet and coffee aftertaste... he never liked a flavor this much before.

The wet sound of their lips parting and slowly coming together again was the only thing audible in the locker room. Wonho wanted to keep that slow pace: he had never dealt with someone as inexperienced as Changkyun, and he had to restrain himself from going any faster.

However, a small moan that came out of the pianist’s mouth was enough to urge him to feel more. Wonho bit his thin upper lip slightly, opening Changkyun’s mouth in the process, making him gasp and holding on to his leather jacket. He slowly bit his pink lower lip this time, pulling on it and feeling some pleasant tickles all over his mouth.

Finally, he introduced his tongue and met Changkyun’s one, caressing it and sucking lightly on it. Both trembled by the warm, wet touch and Wonho accelerated the kiss, pressing the child against the door; the tickles became more intense, more hot, making their bodies set on a fire that could only be put out by the intoxicating caressing of their tongues.

Changkyun raised his arms and wrapped them around the brunette’s neck, pulling his soft brown hair to bring him even more closer: his head wasn’t on planet Earth and he felt as if his body floated in a vast sea, leaving himself at the mercy of thousands of dangerous currents.

They parted just for a few moments, in which Changkyun took a deep breath and gasped for breath. They stared at each other before rejoining like two magnets, tasting and feeling each other, almost urgently.

“Wonho…” he moaned with a little voice, feeling completely dizzy by the way the experienced tongue was playing with his more timid one, but also caressing it carefully, making sure he wasn’t going too fast to help him follow the delicious movement.

Hoseok’s fleshy lips seemed to have been made to kiss those who were so thin and delicate. They were like two lost pieces of two different puzzles, which apparently didn’t fit together, and which had merged into one, completing each other in a unique way.

Wonho wanted to love. And Changkyun, deep down, wanted to be loved.

However, a knock on the door ended the kiss and, consequently, the small world in which they had taken refuge for a few minutes. Changkyun moved away with a shaky body, looking at him completely stunned and trying to normalize his breathing.

Wonho rested his forehead on his, looking at him intensely and smiling widely: the puppy’s lips were all red and swollen, and the pink in his cheeks formed an image that he would never forget.

"Come on, it's about time!" the theater club coordinator warned on the other side of the wall.

His voice seemed far away; Hoseok's brown eyes kept him from thinking clearly. The older boy approached his ear and whispered amused.

"Puppy... wake up."

Then he blew in his ear, causing Changkyun to jerk and finally pulling his head back to Earth. The black haired boy hurriedly pushed him away and stared at the floor, feeling his cheeks burn and beginning to realize what they had just done.

Changkyun didn’t want him to see his blush, so he put on the hood of the wolf costume and pulled the sides to cover his face, earning a tender laugh of Wonho.

“Changkyun... you don’t have to...”

“I!” he exclaimed, sounding more shaken than he would have liked. “I-I have to go.”

Then he turned and hurried out, not long before he remembered how to open a door. Wonho was stuck in the spot, watching the figure of the little boy run clumsily and disappear on backstage.

He backed away a few steps to sit heavily on the bench in the center of the room; he put his fingers to his lips and smiled: at last... Changkyun had gave in. He rested his hands on the wood with a lost gaze, and little by little, his smile disappeared: something had awakened inside him. An intense desire he had never felt for anyone, an intense feeling of wanting to know everything about him.

Now that he had finally tasted him, he wanted more. _Much more_.

This was just the beginning.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun could feel the notes flowing through his body and dying on his fingers. With his eyes closed, he waved his hands in the air, pretending to be playing an invisible piano.

He could hear in the distance the coach of the soccer team shouting 'one, two, three', and somehow, it helped him to set the pace of the melody. The morning breeze was very pleasant, and it was too early for anyone on the stands of the stadium to bother him: he loved that loneliness.

Gradually the coach's voice became a whisper, a soft voice that tinkled in his ear and called his name. The murmur came from a pair of pink lips that he knew very well. Lips that, when curved in a smile, made the angelic face of its owner shine brighter than the sun. Lips he had kissed four days ago.

With a sigh of frustration, Changkyun tossed aside the sheet music that rested on his lap and rubbed his face. He cursed himself for not being able to stop thinking about the kiss he shared with Wonho, and about how much he had enjoyed it: the sensation of those lips on his own didn’t fade away, torturing him at night and driving him crazy.

Did that mean he liked boys? Or he just liked Wonho?

"Get out of my head..." he groaned.

As he pulled his hands away from his face, the presence of someone watching him from a step below made him jump a little. Hyunwoo raised a questioning eyebrow and ran his hand over his forehead, wiping the sweat from the hard workout.

"How come you’re here so early?" asked Hyunwoo.

Changkyun shrugged and avoided eye contact. He picked up the sheet music again and placed it in his lap, leaving room for him to sit next to him.

"I just needed some fresh air," he said in a neutral tone, masking all the worries that were eating him inside. “I don’t have any class until twelve.”

The older boy nodded after a few seconds and sat down, not making a single comment, and gazing at the field where his club mates were running. One of the things that the pianist liked the most of his friend was that he didn’t talk much: they both appreciated the comfortable silence that sometimes formed between them.

"How was your Friday?" The question brought Changkyun out of his thoughts. “Kihyun told me you were an actor for a day.”

The black-haired boy sighed as he remembered the ridicule he had made in the play: his brain had been totally blank at the crucial moment, forgetting what he had to say and making all the children's audience laugh; in the end, he managed to babble his part of the dialogue thanks to the help of the prompter. But it wasn’t entirely his fault, but the boy who kissed him just before the performance.

"Uh..." he hesitated momentarily, "well, let's just say it could have been better."

Hyunwoo laughed lightly and rested his elbows on his knees.

"Don’t worry, I’m sure I would have done it worse.”

Just imagining his big friend dressed in a wolf costume made Changkyun smile; thanks to that, he finally managed to relax, fixing his gaze in the stadium. Some of the soccer club members were passing the ball, others were stretching while a few were sitting on the other side in the stands, taking a rest and chatting.

A figure running across the tracks around the green field caught his attention; he wasn’t wearing his glasses, so he couldn’t see who it was until he passed in front of them.

Wonho slowed down until he stopped running, taking a breath and brushing his hair away from his forehead. Changkyun's whole body tensed once he recognized him and used the sheet music to cover his face; Hyunwoo looked puzzled, but when he saw the fourth-year boy right in front of them, he understood the situation.

He had been watching his little friend for the last few weeks: he was more distracted than usual, and every time someone mentioned Wonho, he became restless and nervous. Changkyun wasn’t like that, he rarely let his feelings show up.

Finally, he had come to the conclusion that he liked Wonho.

Changkyun peeped timidly out of his shield of papers to see if Hoseok had left already; just at that moment, the brunette raised his black T-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, revealing his well-formed abs. Just when the pianist hided again with red cheeks like tomatoes, Hyunwoo knew his assumptions were true.

Finally, Wonho looked up and noticed him; Hyunwoo waved his hand in the air and he returned the greeting, giggling at the sight of the person next to him taking refuge in some sheet music.

"Little puppy!" he called him excitedly. Changkyun blushed even more at the childish mote and shrank in the spot, wanting to disappear. He was feeling too embarrassed, and the fact that Hyunwoo was there too only made things worse.

Hyunwoo cleared his throat and, seeing that Wonho started to climb the steps, he decided that it would be better to leave: he didn’t know what was going on between those two, but he knew that he didn’t want to interfere. Before standing up, he patted Changkyun on the shoulder, who looked at him in alarm, begging him silently not to leave.

"Good luck," he said as a farewell. When he went down the steps and crossed with Wonho, he bowed slightly and continued on his way, oblivious to the curses that Changkyun was sending him internally for abandoning him.

Once Wonho had taken seat at his side, the dark haired boy resigned himself to his fate and looked down at his knees, squeezing the papers between his fingers.

"Hey," the older boy said with a warm smile. Changkyun avoided eye contact and tried not to show how nervous he was. “Why did you hide?” he asked in a soft voice, leaning toward him.

"I wasn’t hiding..." he managed to explain more calmly. Apparently, the tactic of not making eye contact helped him not to stutter, “I was just trying to block the sun.”

“But it’s cloudy today.”

Changkyun turned his neck towards him, and found a pair of brown eyes watching him from too close. He could smell his sweat, and he couldn’t help noticing how his shirt fit perfectly his torso, and how his muscular legs were wrapped in a pair of tight tracksuit pants. His heart was beating like crazy and he felt himself gasping for breath.

"W-well, you know..." he began to explain nervously as he sat further away from him, "even if there are clouds, the sun's rays affect us a-anyways..." Wonho smiled widely at his speech and sit nearer, again being inches from his face. Changkyun swallowed hard and continued babbling stupidities. “Tha-that’s why it's very important to use sunscreen…”

"You don’t say..." Hoseok murmured with amusement, narrowing his eyes and staring at his lips.

The little boy nodded repeatedly trying to keep an indifferent expression, but the fact that Wonho was approaching dangerously to him with hunger in his gaze made that his heart got stuck on his throat.

He pressed the sheet music more tightly: he needed to get away from him to breathe again and, without thinking twice, he used them as a defense weapon.


	13. The first rejection

On impulse, Changkyun jumped up and, holding the music sheet firmly, he hit Wonho in the face. Hoseok didn’t have time to pull away and gasped, more in surprise than at the impact: it had been like feeling a slap on the cheek, but one with very little strength.

The eldest stood still, and they both looked at each other with wide eyes, one because he couldn’t believe he had been rejected that way, and the other because he couldn’t believe the stupidity he had just done.

Without a word, Changkyun inclined his head apologetically and ran down the steps, making his way out from the stadium hurriedly.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

"He slapped you?" asked Jooheon, surprised, dropping the rice he held with his spoon.

Hyungwon also stopped eating his salad and watched him with wide-eyed eyes. His two friends stared at him stupefied and Hoseok sighed.

"I didn’t say that," Wonho murmured, resting his cheek on the palm of his hand.

"You said he hit you in the face, isn’t that the same?" said the confused blonde.

Hoseok dropped his head on the cafeteria’s table.

"It was with some... sheet music or something" he explained. It hadn’t even hurt him, what hurt him most was Changkyun's rejection.

"Some sheet music?" Jooheon repeated with a chuckle. This whole situation seemed to be amusing to him. Hyungwon gave him a cold look that made his smile fade.

Wonho ignored him and pouted, staring at his ramen dish he hadn’t even touched. The day before, after the incident at the stadium, he tried to talk to the pianist again. He waited for him at the door of his class, but the little boy passed by, ignoring him very blatantly.

It was no use sending him messages, because he always left him in read. Wonho was starting to go crazy: why had he rejected him like that? Why did he avoid him? Had he done something wrong...?

“Wonho...” Hyungwon called to his right, giving him a soft pat on the back, “don’t worry, I'm sure that Changkyun had his reasons.”

The brunette snorted at that. Just when he thought they had made progress in their relationship, Changkyun hit him in the face with some papers and made him lose all hope: they seemed to have taken a step back.

"Why did he avoid me?" Wonho wailed, waiting for no reply. Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind and grew pale. “Maybe…" he began to say before raising his head from the table, "he doesn’t like me?"

Hoseok was horrified by his own words: it was impossible. Everyone liked him, he had never been rejected before... maybe Changkyun was the exception.

"Changkyun is very shy, you have to give him time," Hyungwon reassured him. Maybe his friend was right. Wonho tried to be patient, but he couldn’t help wanting to be with Changkyun, so he could touch him, and hug him and...

"Hey, look! Isn’t that Changkyun?”

Jooheon's wake-up call made everyone look where he was pointing. Sure enough, the boy with glasses was in the bar of the cafeteria, waiting for his food. Quickly, Wonho rose from his seat and headed there, leaving his two friends at the table and watching him amused.

"When was the last time Wonho had this crush for someone?" Jooheon asked with sigh, eating his rice again. “He's always the one being chased.”

Hyungwon smiled at that, knowing that it was the first time he had seen his friend being so into a boy.

As Wonho approached his target, his confidence waned to the floor, for fear of being rejected again. But luckily, he had no problem pretending his ego was through the roof.

"Good morning," he said casually, resting a forearm on the bar next to Changkyun.

The younger looked at him out of the corner of his eye and merely bowed slightly in greeting, not paying much attention to him. He hadn’t even bothered to look at him properly.

Usually, Wonho spent half an hour to get ready before leaving his apartment; however, today he spent an hour struggling to look even better and impress Changkyun. He had put on his favorite denim jacket and choker, his makeup was on fleek, but apparently it hadn’t had much effect.

The older boy cleared his throat.

"Are you going to eat alone?"

Changkyun thought for a moment and nodded. The absence of expression on his face made him worry: the black-haired boy used to be adorably shy before him, but all he got from him was indifference today.

It seemed that, at any moment, a stone was going to fall on his head with the word 'rejection' engraved on it.

_No_. Wonho wouldn’t give up so easily. He started to approach him with the intention of inviting him to eat, but the waitress came at that very moment and gave a lunch box with a sandwich inside to Changkyun. The child picked it up quickly and paid her, walking out of the cafeteria almost running and leaving Hoseok on the spot.

He stood with a frozen smile, hearing in the distance a laugh from Jooheon and his whine when Hyungwon hit him. His ears reddened with embarrassment and gave a cold look to his friend before going after Changkyun: he needed to find the slippery boy and talk to him seriously about their relationship.

He didn’t have to look for him for a long time since he was in the first-year class, eating at a desk by the window. Wonho approached him and stood looking at him with his arms folded; Changkyun looked up and let out a sigh before laying his sandwich on the lunch box.

"We have to talk," said the brunette.

“…About what?”

_Is he really playing the fool now?_

"You already know about what.”

Changkyun didn’t look him in the eye: he was tightening the sleeves of his gray sweatshirt and licking his lips nervously. He closed the lunch box and got up, finally looking into his eyes.

“No, I don’t know.”

Then, Changkyun walked past him with the intention of leaving. At this point, Wonho had grown tired of him running away all the time, and he wasn’t going to let him escape that easily. Changkyun would confront him whether he wanted to or not, and for that he would resort to the most mature tactic that he could have came up with.

In a quick movement, he pinched his ass, causing him to jerk and turn to him startled and wide-eyed.

"W-what did you just do?"

Wonho shrugged, playing the innocent.

"I don’t know," he said, repeating Changkyun's previous words. The black-haired boy stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds. He didn’t know that Hoseok could be so childish. “But I'll do it again if we don’t talk about the other day.”

His cheeks blushed because of Wonho’s 'threat' and he slowly walked backwards until his back hit with a desk. From the older boy's expression, Changkyun knew he meant it. So, much to his regret, he decided to tell him what had been hanging around his head since Friday.

“Look, th-that thing other day… was a mistake.” The brunette felt his heart twist at his words, remaining speechless. Changkyun rubbed his neck and continued to explain himself in a voice more and more weak. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but it shouldn’t have happened...”

They both remained silent, staring at the ground. This was the last thing Wonho wanted to hear: he wasn’t sure of Changkyun's sexuality, perhaps he was afraid to admit that he liked a boy and that’s why he was turning him down.

But he hoped that, if their feelings were mutual, none of that would matter to him. And he had just proved that he was wrong.

"A mistake..." Hoseok muttered with an ironic smile. Changkyun nodded and the brunette bit his lip, looking away to the side: he wanted to cry, but he wasn’t going to do it. He didn’t want to look more pathetic than he already felt.

However, he didn’t want to give up yet and tried one last thing.

“If it was really a mistake... kiss me.”

Changkyun looked up in surprise.

“Huh…?”

Wonho approached him and swallowed, gathering enough courage to keep talking.

"If you don’t feel anything now, I'll take it and leave you alone."

The child froze and put his hands on the desk behind him; he opened his mouth to say something, but he thought it over and closed it again.

Wonho took another step until their knees met, causing the boy with glasses to shrink and look down: deep down, Hoseok knew that it was most likely that Changkyun would leave, rejecting him definitely and burying all his hopes deep on the ground.

The seconds passed and Wonho felt more disappointed. Changkyun didn’t seem to have the intention of doing anything, and it hurt.

He closed his eyes and sighed, about to move away from him. However, he felt a pair of hands resting on his shoulders to bring him closer, and then a soft touch settled on his lips. Wonho opened his eyelids suddenly and saw Changkyun stepping back, his cheeks very flushed.

_Did he just…?_

The black-haired boy put a hand on his mouth and cocked his face in embarrassment.

"I-I didn’t feel anything..."

Wonho couldn’t believe that he actually did it: no doubt Changkyun was really unpredictable. And he loved it.

"You have to do it again," Wonho explained, trying to hide his smile. Changkyun frowned and looked at him suspiciously. “You can’t be sure with just one kiss.”

As he said this, he leaned over and rested his hands on the desk behind Changkyun, who wanted to punch him but got overwhelmed by his proximity. They were so close that Wonho could fully appreciate his beautiful features: his feline eyes avoided eye contact and took refuge behind his pair of round glasses, his thin lips were somewhat parched, and in the right corner of his mouth there was a bread crumb of the sandwich that he was eating a few moments ago.

_So freaking cute._

When Changkyun finally dared to look at him, their breaths fluttered and narrowed their eyes. Wonho lifted his hands up to his glasses and slid them down the bridge of his nose gently until they were removed, leaving them on the desk.

The owner of the glasses blinked a couple of times to get accustomed to the light of the room, and aroused in Wonho a wave of tenderness.

Like last Friday, they felt that a force they couldn’t control took over their bodies; slowly, they joined their lips again, this time in a kiss that lasted a few seconds longer than the previous one. Hoseok pulled his bottom lip, biting it slightly and making it last a couple of seconds so the little boy would tremble at the touch.

“How about now?” Wonho muttered within inches of him. Changkyun weakly denied in reply.

"Nothing..." he whispered. He raised his little hands to his denim jacket and pulled him back to him, joining their mouths in a soft kiss, too innocent for Hoseok.

The older boy began to move his lips avidly, wanting to feel more; he began to use his tongue to moisten Changkyun's lips with each kiss, without actually introducing it. He wanted to torture him a little bit.

“Ah, Wonho...”

The soft moan that escaped from Changkyun’s mouth made them separate for a moment and look at each other intensely. The puppy seemed to be wrecked, his parted lips and heavy breathing was _freaking_ adorable.

Without thinking twice, Wonho grabbed him by the waist and lifted him, sitting Changkyun on the table and making him gasp. The puppy looked alarmed to the class’ door, afraid that someone would come, but as soon as Hoseok placed himself between his legs and kissed him again anxiously, leaving a wet trail of kisses from the corner of his mouth to his perfect neck, Changkyun slowly let himself go again.

Wonho watched the cute moles that decorated the golden skin of Changkyun. In particular, he noticed the mole that was just above his Adam's apple, which he had long wanted to taste.

Without thinking twice, he left a warm kiss on it, earning a soft moan from him. Changkyun tangled his fingers in his brown hair and pulled him towards him, closing his eyes and opening his mouth against his head, adoring the tickles on his neck and feeling how the heat on his stomach was starting to take over his body.

Wonho kissed his skin slowly back up to meet the delicious mouth he would never grow tired of. This time, he introduced his tongue and caressed Changkyun's, enjoying every sound he received from the black-haired boy.

The warm touch made them shudder and Changkyun hugged his neck, opening his mouth for him and letting him explore it. He felt some intense tickles in his very low belly, and rolled his legs around the brunette in search of greater contact.

Hoseok grunted at his action without separating from his lips and enveloped him with his strong arms, sticking even more to his body. Passing his tongue over his thin upper lip, the brunette felt that their hips were brushing, and had to curse between the kisses because he was going fucking crazy.

The little boy didn’t want to enjoy it, he had said to himself a thousand times that what he was feeling for Wonho wasn’t right. He tried to suppress his emotions and ignore him, but his façade had fallen as soon as the older boy cornered him against the desk and kissed him again.

Kihyun had already warned him not to fall into Wonho’s nets, because he wouldn’t easily leave. However, Changkyun was a very curious person, and deep down he was dying to know what would happen if he played the dangerous game of Shin Hoseok.

As the minutes went by, the classroom atmosphere became more and more heated, to the point that they were both having a hard time breathing. Again, they parted so that they could catch their breath and calm a little their frantic heartbeat.

Instead of kissing him again, Wonho leaned his forehead against his and raised his fingers to caress his cheek; Changkyun looked at him puzzled, but still accepted his touch in silence. Wonho stared at him, and then, he realized that he wanted to protect him, he wanted them to know everything about each other.

He wanted to be his _everything_.

Suddenly, a few words came up in Wonho's heart and began to rise in his throat. He felt the urge to say them, but he was very afraid at the same time. However, having Changkyun so close gave him the push he needed to dare to utter them.

"Changkyun… go out with me."


	14. Musical analysis

Silence flooded the classroom and Changkyun froze; his heart and brain stopped working: he didn’t know if he had heard correctly or if he had only imagined it.

_Go out... with Wonho? Me?_

Seeing Changkyun's expression, the older boy bit his lip, regretting having asked him out that suddenly. However, he wanted that adorable boy to be his boyfriend, wanted to hug him and kiss him whenever he wanted, to have him alone for him.

Then, they heard people approaching down the hall: classes were about to begin. Immediately, both tensed up and Changkyun pushed him to get off the table.

Without looking at his face, he went quietly to his desk by the window and sat down. Wonho stared at him from the same spot as the students entered the classroom: he wasn’t going to pressure him to give him an answer soon. He knew how Changkyun was, the best thing would be to have a lot of patience and wait.

In the end, it would be worth it.

"Excuse me..." Wonho gave a small jump and turned to the girl who was speaking. She seemed embarrassed for just talking to him, “this is my desk.”

The brunette realized he was preventing her from sitting at her desk and stepped aside.

"Ah, sorry, I didn’t notice," he apologized, giving her one of his charming smiles. The girl giggled and started to play with her hair.

"Aren’t you Shin Hoseok?" she asked with interest. “What are you doing in a first year classroom?”

“I came to… talk to a friend.”

Instinctively, he looked at Changkyun's desk, just to find out that the boy was staring at them. As soon as their eyes met, Changkyun looked away hurriedly toward the window, making Wonho's lips curl into a smile.

"Do you mean that weird-? I mean, that guy?” Wonho looked back at the girl and nodded, frowning. “Ah... and I thought he had no friends," she added with a nervous laugh.

Wonho didn’t like what he was hearing, but he still kept his kind smile.

"Yeah, he's a little weirdo," he said, raising his voice for Changkyun to hear. “But, to be honest... I find it adorable, don’t you think?”

The girl was surprised; it seemed like she was going to say something, but before she did, the brunette bowed slightly and left, a satisfied smile on his face.

Changkyun continued to stare at the window and pulled on the hood of his sweatshirt. He felt his cheeks burning and he wanted to cover himself so that no one would notice.

 "Idiot," he murmured in embarrassment, a shy smile on his lips.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

When he opened the tap and the hot water slid down his body, Changkyun let out a sigh and closed his eyes. All his muscles relaxed and he began humming his favorite rap song while he washed his hair.

That day had been hard, but he wasn’t tired. He was in a good mood despite having had class until six o'clock in the afternoon, and then having been up to almost nine o'clock at night rehearsing his piano recital. If it weren’t because they were closing the faculty, he would have stayed longer.

Now he enjoyed playing the piano again: he no longer saw it as an obligation, his fingers were once again yearning to create melodies. Lately he felt more motivated, more... happy.

And, despite he didn’t want to admit it, it was largely thanks to the dummy, a.k.a Hoseok.

It had been almost a month since Wonho asked him out, and he hadn’t given him an answer yet.

He wasn’t sure of his feelings: he obviously liked him, but he didn’t know if it was enough to start a relationship with him. Sure, Wonho was a really nice person and with a big heart, but he didn’t quite know him, and the idea of being the boyfriend of the most popular guy on campus wasn’t very appealing.

Nothing had happened between them since then, however, now they had grown closer.

On the first few days, Wonho didn’t try to approach him again. He simply smiled at him as they met on campus; Changkyun used to tilt his head in response and passed by.

But that changed the morning in which the pianist returned to the stands of the sports center in search of the loneliness he needed from time to time. Wonho was training like the last time, and every time he passed him, he slowed down and ran backwards so he could keep looking at him as he went.

Even at one of those times, he winked and threw one of his heart-breaker smiles.

Changkyun rolled his eyes at Hoseok's presumption. However, he still thought that his childish, smug side was adorable; finally, he gave in and waved at him timidly, giving him a small smile. The brunette stared at him completely dazed, and because of his distraction he stumbled and fell to the ground.

Seeing this, the pianist ran down the steps to make sure he was all right. Wonho had no scratches, but he began to complain, saying he couldn’t walk and his vision was blurring. Changkyun suspected he was faking it, and even so he decided to escort him to the infirmary.

Thereafter, Wonho began to wait after school to accompany him to the cafeteria, or to chat for a while. The 'good morning' and 'good night' messages began to turn into long nightly conversations, which none of them wanted to end.

Yeah, maybe his good mood was due to that idiot...

When he finished showering, he dried himself and dressed in a comfortable sweater that he wore as his pajamas. He took a small towel and wrapped it around his shoulders before leaving the bathroom; he passed by the living room where Kihyun was absorbed in watching a mystery movie and headed the bedroom.

He lay on his stomach on his bed and took his cell phone from the bedside table. As he ruffled his hair with the towel, he saw that he had a new message, and he couldn’t help but smile when he saw Wonho had sent it.

_"I'm bored, what are you doing?"_

It was from twenty minutes ago and he didn’t hesitate to reply.

_"I just took a shower"_

He didn’t have to wait long to receive a reply.

_"Oh... and what are you wearing?"_

Changkyun rolled his eyes: he knew he was joking, the problem was that it was the third time he had asked that question in the same week. He seriously considered letting him on read and go to sleep, but he knew that the next day he would be pouting and complaining that he ignored him.

_"I’m wearing my head and my limbs"_

_"So you're not wearing anything?"_

The little boy sighed, shaking his head. Hoseok was a hopeless case.

_"Good night, dummy"_

_"Okay, okay... dream with me"_

There he went again with his cheesiness. Changkyun's fingers typed quickly as he held a smile.

_"No thanks, I don’t want to have nightmares"_

A minute later, a selfie of Wonho arrived, laying on his bed with puffy eyes and his soft messy hair, clutching a hand to his heart with an offended expression. Attached to the photo was the message _"You’re a bad person"_.

Changkyun couldn’t help but chuckle. He felt something warm inside him and was unable to stop smiling: it was on those moments when he was tempted to accept being his boyfriend. He wanted to accept so bad.

During the last month he had been debating the same topic over and over again: how would his life change if he said yes? It was sure it would take a turn, and he was scared as hell. Scared of what his friends, his family and all the people on campus would think. Scared of the stupid prejudices that society had imposed. Scared of being different.

He looked back at the picture of Wonho, and his mind momentarily forgot all that.

He remembered the stupid, adorable laughter of the brunette, and how his eyes curled like a half moon when he smiled widely. His nervousness when he didn’t know how to follow a conversation or a joke, his excessive self-confidence, his obsession with chokers and his peculiar sense of fashion that, after all, suited him better than anyone.

Changkyun blocked the phone and closed his eyes, dropping his head on the pillow: his feelings for him grew more and more each day, and he didn’t know what to do.

He never imagined that falling in love could bring him so much troubles.

Suddenly, his cell phone vibrated again and he unlocked it, thinking it was Wonho again. His frown creased as he saw it was an unknown number and entered the chat.

_"Hi: 3 I'm Minhyuk"_

Changkyun was surprised: he didn’t expect to receive a message from him. Although Minhyuk tried to disguise it, the pianist knew that he wasn’t to his liking, and he still didn’t know why.

_"Hello"_

_"I hope you don’t mind me talking to you here :D"_

_"No, not at all"_

_"Good ^^"_

Changkyun didn’t know what else to say, so he decided to wait for Minhyuk to continue talking. Deep down, he knew that Wonho's friend must have a reason to send him a message so suddenly.

_"I was wondering if we could talk about something real quick"_

He was right.

_"Yeah, of course"_

Changkyun swallowed and waited nervously for the answer.

_"You see... it's about Wonho"_

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun's eyes were fixed on the sheet music in front of him. He rearranged his glasses and read again one of the analysis exercises he had to do for the next day.

_“What does the following musical sign indicate at the beginning of the song? A, that the musical form is binary. B, you have to wait four beats. C, that Wonho has a girlfriend and he’s just playing with you.”_

_Shit… Not again._

With frustration, he closed the notebook and sighed, covering his face. He hadn’t stopped thinking about what Minhyuk had said to him yesterday. Did Wonho really have a girlfriend? Had everything been a lie? Just to make fun of him?

Hyungwon looked up from the novel he held in his hands and looked at the boy sitting across from him at the cafeteria table.

"Problems with the exercise?" Changkyun shook his head. The slender boy thought about it for a few seconds before continuing. “Another… kind of _problems_?”

This time the pianist showed his face and looked down. Finally he nodded in silence: he had no intention of telling anyone, let alone the best friend of the cause of all his miseries. But there was something in Hyungwon that prevented him from lying to him.

"And I suppose you don’t want to tell me what's wrong," he continued, putting his book aside and leaning back in his chair. As he received no answer, he let out a big yawn as he continued to speak. “Let me guess... does it have to do with Wonho?”

Despite being an expert in hiding his emotions, Changkyun was unable to mask the affliction he felt upon hearing that name, and that didn’t go unnoticed by Hyungwon: he had just hit the jackpot.

Quickly, he stopped stretching, got up and took a seat in the chair next to the little boy.

“What happened?” he asked, putting his hand on his shoulder and looking at him with great concern.

Changkyun remained silent, debating whether it was really prudent to open up to Hyungwon. But there was a question in his heart that didn’t let him sleep at night and he longed to know the answer.

"Is it true..." he murmured, not daring to look at him, "that Wonho has a girlfriend?"

He had said it. And he couldn’t believe how little he liked to say the word 'girlfriend': just imagining Hoseok with another person made his stomach twist.

“What? Who told you that?” Hyungwon asked, frowning. The black haired boy just shrugged. “Wait. It’s because of those shitty rumors?” he said, his eyes narrowing suspiciously, hoping Changkyun wouldn’t believe all the lies about his best friend.

Changkyun remained thoughtful: he had never believed in the rumors that Wonho was with someone different every day. But why would Minhyuk lie to him? He just didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Changkyun finally looked at him and shook his head, causing Hyungwon to smile.

"Wonho is not dating anyone, I’m sure of it.”

The warmth that the drowsy boy used in his words comforted him. He was relieved... but there was still something inside him that wouldn’t let him be at ease.

"Besides... do you want to know a secret?" Hyungwon began, leaning forward. Changkyun looked at him expectantly. “Wonho won’t shut up about you. I swear, he never gets tired of talking about how cute you are,” That made him sigh and shake his head, unable to not smile. “Seriously, you had to see how excited he gets when someone mentions your name. It’s been awhile since...”

However, Hyungwon froze suddenly, fixing his gaze on a spot behind Changkyun. The pianist frowned and turned to the window to see what he was looking at.

And then he saw him.

Wonho was passing by the cafeteria with a big smile... and he was carrying a girl around by the waist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'm really sorry for not updating fast (I'm trash heeee) I've been busy writing the wonderland au wonkyun fic, and I didn't find time to translate this work ;-; (I'll translate that fic too, but when I finish writing it) Anyways, I hope you like it!  
> Here comes a little drama hehehe but hey, it couldn't be all happy and beautiful...  
> Well, hugs and kisses for yall!!


	15. Spying session

The world had stopped spinning as soon as he saw them. An unpleasant sensation rose in his throat and flooded his body; Changkyun wanted to stop looking at them, but he couldn’t. His body didn’t respond.

Then, Wonho stopped right in front of them and pulled the girl closer to him. He grabbed her chin and stared at her, and then his eyes fell on Changkyun's.

The little boy's blood froze as Hoseok's lips curved in a mocking smile. Then, he began to kiss her without taking his eyes off him.

Changkyun wanted to die at that moment.

The frantic beats of his heart became deafening, to the point that a sharp and unbearable beep rumbled in his head. He covered his ears and finally looked away from the painful image he was witnessing.

_Why would he want to be with you? It was obvious that he would end up getting tired. He was just making fun of you. All this time everything was a pure lie. Lie. Lie. Lie._

Vertigo went up his body. He wanted to cry, to disappear from there. He wanted to wake up from that nightmare...

And so he did.

Covered in sweat, Changkyun's eyelids snapped open with heavy breathing. The rays of the sun that filtered through the curtains of his bedroom told him that it was daytime; feeling exhausted, he rubbed his face and cursed himself for having dreamed again with the same shit.

It had been three days since that fateful afternoon. Wonho had not even kissed that girl, they just passed by in front of the cafeteria; but his mind always played tricks on him and distorted reality, torturing him and preventing him from sleeping peacefully.

When he heard someone approaching the bedroom, he pulled the blanket over his shoulders and pretended to be asleep. He heard his roommate rummage in his backpack and a zipper closing; then, some steps stopped right next to him.

“Changkyun?” he called shaking him lightly. “You’ll be late.”

The black haired boy shuffled between the sheets and covered himself even more.

“I'm not going to class...” he muttered.

"You’ve been skipping classes for three days," Kihyun replied in an annoyed tone. “And let me remind you that your piano recital is this afternoon, you’ll skip that too?”

_Shit... the recital._

"I'm not feeling fine," he argued, unconvinced. He had already used that excuse the previous days, but he hoped that Kihyun would believe him and leave him alone.

However, a pair of hands grasped the blanket tightly and pulled it out, completely uncovering him. Changkyun let out a groan, hiding his face with his arms.

“Lim Changkyun, get up right now or I swear I'll call your mom to tell her that her son is a lazy ass who refuses to go to class.”

Changkyun sighed: he knew that Kihyun was capable of fulfilling his threat. Heavily, he straightened up and stared at nothing while his friend picked up his backpack from the floor.

"I'll wait for you to go together," he warned him before heading into the living room, closing the door behind him. He wanted to make sure that Changkyun wouldn’t go back to bed and go to college.

The black haired boy watched the door which his roommate had just closed: he didn’t know that he was depressed because of Wonho. Rather, he was oblivious to everything that had happened between them, and it would be better to keep it that way: he knew that, if he were to find out, Kihyun would make sure that Wonho’s body ended up at the bottom of the sea.

He got off the bed and pulled off his pajamas; he looked through the window and saw that the day was very sunny, and even so he decided to put on reluctantly his usual layers of clothes.

_I don’t want to see Wonho. I don’t want it…_

This whole situation reminded him of his painful years of high school. He used to pretend to be sick so he could stay at his parents' house and not have to meet those people: just remembering them made him feel nauseous.

He always wished he could erase those years, forget that they ever happened.

When he finally finished dressing, he fixed his gaze on his cell phone, which rested on the bedside table. Almost with fear, he reached it and lit it for the first time in three days, checking that he had twenty missed calls and almost a hundred messages from different chats.

He only saw the ones he received from Hyungwon and sighed: maybe it was time to give signs of life.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

“Shit, I’m melting!” Kihyun complained as he pulled out his denim jacket. “I don’t understand how you can continue dressing like this in June.”

Changkyun nodded absentmindedly and continued to walk along the campus. He was more aware of avoiding Wonho than of the conversation with his friend.

When they were approaching the faculty, he heard someone call him to his left and he stopped. He saw a boy beckoning to him from a wooden bench under a tree: he wasn’t wearing his glasses, but someone with such long arms could only be Hyungwon.

He let out a sigh and started walking towards him.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Kihyun asked without moving from the spot. Once he reached the bench, he stared at Hyungwon's stylish appearance: his plaid shirt was knotted around his waist, and his white T-shirt showed his thin, pale arms. But without a doubt, the big sunglasses that covered his eyes were what gave him that model aura that characterized him.

Hyungwon patted the bench a few times, telling Changkyun to sit next to him. He hesitated a few seconds and did so; his whole body was tense until he received a gentle caress on the hair that calmed him a little.

“How are you?”

Changkyun shrugged without looking at him. There was no point in telling him he was okay, because it was a fragrant lie: after Hyungwon had witnessed what happened in the cafeteria, it must have been obvious to him that his mood was not the best.

They were silent for a few moments before the tall boy began rubbing his back gently, without making any comment. It was comforting.

But the tranquility didn’t last long.

“Who the hell are you?”

Kihyun watched them with crossed arms and with a distrustful face; Hyungwon lowered his sunglasses to the tip of his nose to see the intruder.

“Excuse me, are you talking to me?”

“No, I’m talking to your mom. Who else will I be talking to?” replied the pink-haired, growing impatient.

Hyungwon raised an eyebrow and addressed the little boy. “Changkyun, do you know him?” he asked gently. Kihyun couldn’t believe what he was hearing: first he sees Changkyun being close with some random guy, and now they were treating him like a stranger.

"He's my roommate," Changkyun said, his voice tired. “Kihyun, this is Chae Hyungwon.”

“Roommate?” repeated the eldest of all, analyzing Kihyun from top to bottom. Then, he let out a laugh full of disdain that got the pink-haired on his nerves.

“What?” Kihyun huffed, unable to hide his annoyance.

“Nothing…”

Kihyun wasn’t willing to put up with the stranger anymore, so he went up to Changkyun and held out a hand for him to get up.

"Let's go," he demanded authoritatively, "we have to go to class.”

"Give him a break," Hyungwon refuted with a frown, "don’t you see he's depressed?"

“Depressed? Yeah, right. Depression is what he’ll have when he sees his shitty grades for skipping classes.”

Hyungwon rolled his eyes and continued arguing with him. Meanwhile, Changkyun's head was elsewhere; the warm breeze and the gentle swaying of the trees reminded him of a particular morning.

One morning that, unlike his high school years, he wanted to remember forever.

It had happened two months ago. After his piano recital, Wonho had approached the tree under which he was eating and, after having a little confrontation with Kihyun, had sat down next to him on the lawn to ask for his phone number.

His nervous giggle was still very present in his memory, and he couldn’t help but smile sadly.

_“I... well, I just wanted to congratulate you for today’s recital. You were awesome! It was so cool hearing you play, really.”_

_Idiot._

_"You look like an onion with all those layers."_

_Stupid._

_“You know... the next time it would be easier to find you if I had your phone number.”_

"Shut up..." he murmured in a broken voice. It hurt too much to think about him. But it hurt even more to miss him that much. He wanted to hate him... but he couldn’t.

Hyungwon and Kihyun stopped arguing as soon as they heard him; the pianist raised his legs on the bench and hugged them, hiding his face in between.

"Look what you've done," Hyungwon reproached the shorter one before he put an arm around Changkyun to try to cheer him up.

“Me?” Kihyun bellowed. “You started it!”

“Seriously, if you don’t lower the volume, I'm going to hit your head until you get even shorter.” The pink-haired boy was filled with indignation and opened his mouth to start another dispute, but Hyungwon interrupted him with great seriousness before he did. “Changkyun feels like shit because of Wonho, it’s not the right time to argue.”

Kihyun was silent for a few seconds. His brain was processing the information and, when the bulb went on, his eyes widened and he pointed with his index finger at his roommate.

“Won-Wonho and y-you...” he stammered totally shocked. Changkyun didn’t dare raise his head: he didn’t want him to find out, but now there was nothing to do about it. “You and him…”

"Yeah, they have something," Hyungwon said without patience. “You sure are slow, god.”

Kihyun was about to explode. He knew that, eventually, Wonho would put his dirty hands on his innocent friend. But his maternal spirit prevented him from taking the news calmly: that fucking brat was the cause of Changkyun’s depression.

Taking a deep breath, he clenched his fists and spoke as calmly as he could.

“What happened with Wonho?”

The sinister expression of the pink haired frightened Hyungwon a little, who cleared his throat before speaking.

“There was... a little misunderstanding.”

Kihyun closed his eyes and breathed deeply; after a few seconds, he took a seat on the other side of Changkyun.

“Tell me. All of it.”

Hyungwon sighed and looked at Changkyun's eyes for approval; he nodded slightly, resigned to telling the truth to his friend.

And so they spent the next hour; Kihyun made almost no comment as the two boys told him what happened in the last two months. Changkyun skipped many details and simply explained the essentials, which included the fact that Wonho asked him out, and also the event of the cafeteria.

"It just doesn’t make sense," Hyungwon insisted frustrated. “I'm sure he likes you like crazy, he would never be with two people at a time. He would never cheat on you.”

“Cheat on me?” Changkyun repeated with a wry smile. “We don’t even have a relationship... he has every right to be with whomever he wants.”

 Hearing this, Kihyun suddenly stood up, attracting the attention of the other two.

“And you're not going to do anything?” the pink-haired asked without looking at him.

Changkyun remained silent: what was he supposed to do? Go ask for explanations to Wonho?

“No...” he answered unconvinced.

"If I were in your place, I would crush that fucking insect," he explained, stamping his fist against the palm of his other hand, "I would make him suffer until he crawled back into the hole from which he came out.” Everything said with a cynicism to which Changkyun was already used to, but that made Hyungwon shudder. Then he turned to them and put his hands on his hips. “The first thing we need to do is to find out who the hell is that girlfriend of his.”

Hyungwon leaned back on the bench.

“Well, I don’t know how you intend to find out, because we had never seen her before...”

Just then, a laugh reached their ears and everyone turned their necks towards the place from which it came. A few meters away from them was the parking lot; Wonho was leaning on his own car, talking with the unknown girl from the other day.

Changkyun shrank in the bench, feeling a huge pain in his chest.

"There's that little shit," Kihyun hissed without taking his eyes off the couple.

She was pulling the brunette’s arm while laughing: it seemed she wanted to take him somewhere, but he had no intention of following her. In the end, the girl gave up and, after talking with Wonho for a while, got into the passenger seat.

When Hoseok began to get into the car too, Kihyun turned quickly to Hyungwon.

“Do you have a car?”

“Uh, yeah, but...”

“Come on, there's no time to lose.”

Immediately after, he went decisively to the parking lot. Hyungwon was stunned for a few seconds, but ended up getting up and following him in a hurry.

Changkyun remained seated, watching them scared.

“Guys! What are you doing?” he shouted in whispers, praying that they wouldn’t do the madness he was thinking.

Both turned to him and beckoned with his hands to follow them. He hesitated a few seconds, alternating his eyes between his friends and Wonho's car. Were they really going to follow him to spy on him?

Time ran and he didn’t know what to do; but when he heard the engine of Hoseok's vehicle turn on, he finally reacted. He got up and ran until he reached them, getting into the back seats of Hyungwon’s old car.

He fastened his seatbelt with heavy breathing, not believing that he had agreed to participate in such a crazy plan. His body had moved by itself: maybe he wanted to know what was going on between those two.

The tall boy turned the key and started the car; beside him, Kihyun pulled a pair of sunglasses from his backpack and put them on before turning to Changkyun.

“We'll hunt down that bastard.”

That was when the regret came and Changkyun considered jumping through the car’s window.


	16. Danger at the wheel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guyyyzzz just wanted to let you know that I'm on fire translating this, I'm already at chapter 19!!! Anyways, hope you guys enjoy it 'til now, lots of hugs and kisses <333

“Don’t you know how to drive faster?” Kihyun complained in frustration.

"We have to maintain a safe distance," explained the driver before changing gear. “Or do you want us to be discovered?”

The pink-haired boy snorted in response and crossed his arms. Meanwhile, Changkyun didn’t take his eyes off the window on the right: they were going at a snail speed along the road of a multi-lane street. They were so slow that he could probably open the door and get out of the car on foot.

"We're going to lose them," Kihyun said, seeing that Hoseok's vehicle was starting to go faster.

"This is a fifty speed zone," said Hyungwon seriously. “Road safety comes first.”

"The problem is that our speed is thirty per hour," the copilot said scathingly.

The tall boy was going to answer, but a gray car behind them honked it’s horn and overtook them in the left lane as he shouted and insulted them. Hyungwon cringed in the seat and squeezed the wheel hard.

“What’s up with that crazy old man?” he managed to say after recovering from the shock.

"Come on, overtake him," Kihyun demanded. Under normal circumstances, Hyungwon wouldn’t have done it; but that idiot had insulted them. Without thinking too much, he stepped on the accelerator to reach the gray car.

Changkyun's stomach went up to his throat and he grasped the roof grabber in fright, regretting for the twentieth time having come with them.

Before overtaking him, they passed by the gray vehicle and Kihyun waved happily at the man, who looked at them indignantly and began to curse.

The pink-haired boy laughed heartily and turned to Hyungwon, tapping him on the arm.

“Doesn’t it feel great to not let people stomp on you?”

Hyungwon looked at him and laughed anxiously; after all, he didn’t feel comfortable going faster than allowed. He had gotten so nervous that he hadn’t realized they were going much faster than before. Too fast.

"Re-red," Changkyun stuttered as he watched in horror as they approached a closed traffic light. “Red!”

The scream frightened the driver, who stepped on the brake in time and managed to stop just before the painted line of the road. They all stared at nothing and with agitated breathing: this secret operation was going to end up costing them their lives.

"Next time... I drive," Kihyun managed to say in a choked voice; after a few seconds, both laughed and Changkyun sighed. The little boy again looked at the window on his side and what he saw made his heart jump again: he had just broken his own record of heart attacks per minute.

With his eyes wide open, he finally reacted and crouched down, covering his head with his hands. Changkyun's sudden movement caught the attention of his roommate, who turned to him frowning.

“What’s the matter?” Changkyun couldn’t make a sound and pointed with his index finger at the window; when Kihyun looked to his right, he understood why they should hide: they were right next to Wonho's car.

"Shit," he muttered alarmed before scurrying on the seat and using a hand to cover his face. He started to pull on the sleeve of Hyungwon's shirt to attract his attention and, when he saw them too, he made a strange fuss with his hands and ended up looking to the opposite side to avoid being discovered: his big height and the steering wheel prevented him from hiding or bending over.

Everyone held their breath, praying that Wonho wouldn’t look at the car next to him.

"Come on, come on..." Kihyun said between clenched teeth, hoping the traffic light would turn green once and for all. _Why was it taking so long?_ “Fuck, this is your fault!” he reproached Hyungwon.

“My fault? It's yours!” he shouted in whispers. “We shouldn’t have overtaken that car!”

"Maybe we shouldn’t have done it if you didn’t drive like a turtle," Kihyun answered with venom in his voice.

Hyungwon momentarily forgot about the situation around them and turned angrily to the co-pilot. Meanwhile, Changkyun was shrinking more and more in the seat: if they continued like this, they would end up being discovered.

“Road safety is...!”

However, Hyungwon was halfway finished completing the sentence and left his mouth ajar. He started to close his eyes and held Kihyun's arm tightly.

“What the fu-?” began the pink-haired boy, but was interrupted by Hyungwon's thunderous sneeze. The sudden spasm that his body made when sneezing caused him to throw his head forward and hit the horn on the wheel unintentionally.

The loud sound that came out of the car left them icy. Just then, the light turned green and Wonho's car took a few seconds to get going again.

Kihyun turned his neck slowly towards Hyungwon, who still didn’t raise his head for fear of the reaction of the shorter one.

“I’m going to kill you.”

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Hyungwon was the first to appear at the corner of the street; further down, Kihyun's head also emerged to see if they had a free hand.

They were in a neighborhood of houses with a very steep slope; a little further on, Hoseok and the girl walked very close to each other, chatting animatedly. The couple had got out of their car a few minutes ago and they had parked nearby to follow them on foot.

It seemed a miracle that Wonho hadn’t discovered them yet.

"Come on," Kihyun said, seeing that they were far enough away.

They moved steeply downhill, hiding behind the cars that were parked on the sides, or behind some waste containers that they encountered on the road.

Changkyun thought that it looked like an espionage movie, but a really shitty one.

When they finally reached the end of the street, the couple stopped in front of a cafeteria; seeing this, Kihyun suddenly stopped and raised a hand, causing the other two to stop moving on the spot and stick to the wall of the street.

“Quiet.” Wonho said something to the girl and put an arm around her shoulders before opening the glass door of the establishment.

“What do we do now?” Hyungwon asked after a moment of silence.

"Let's go in," said the pink-haired boy turning to the other two. Changkyun's stomach cringed at the thought of entering that place: they were going too far.

“Go in?” the slender boy asked without being completely convinced by the strategy. “And what do you expect us to do inside? Go and say hi to them?”

"We need to see them more closely," Kihyun argued, folding his arms. “Do you have a better plan?”

“Wait outside, for example?”

The shorter one huffed at Hyungwon's suggestion. Seeing that Changkyun didn’t say anything, both turned to him to find out his opinion, and discovered that he was staring at his feet.

“Changkyun?” Hyungwon asked, approaching him and touching his arm. “What’s wrong?”

"I... I don’t know if I want to keep doing this," the little boy murmured. It was so painful to see Wonho with that girl, to see him smile with her... to see him happy.

Hyungwon sighed and gave him a sympathetic look: he understood that the whole situation must had been so hard for him.

“If you want, we can go back.” Changkyun looked up and was relieved at the possibility of running away and returning home. He wanted to hide in his apartment and never go out again.

Suddenly, Kihyun pushed Hyungwon aside and, ignoring the older boy's complaints, he firmly grabbed Changkyun by the shoulders: his expression was so serious that it was a bit scary.

"Lim Changkyun," he called, causing him to swallow. “Do you really like Wonho?”

The raven haired blinked a couple of times at the sudden question; Kihyun's eyes seemed to be flaming, and he was forced to give him an answer.

"Ye-yeah," he murmured hesitantly.

"Guys..." Hyungwon called them, looking for the first time at the name of the cafeteria. That place called MoMo Coffee was quite familiar to him. “I think we shouldn’t-”

Kihyun told him to shut up and shook Changkyun, frowning even more.

“Yeah what? I can’t hear you.”

"Yeah," Changkyun repeated a little louder. But his friend was still not happy about his response and didn’t let go. “Okay, yes... Yes, I like him!” he exclaimed, overwhelmed by the pressure. “A lot..." he added, lowering his voice.

"Good," he said satisfied. “And are you going to let him laugh in your face or will you show him that you aren’t his toy?”

“Uh…”

That was enough response for him. Before Changkyun could do anything, Kihyun took his hand and dragged him towards the cafeteria. The pianist took a few moments to react and tried to get out of the grip, looking at Hyungwon with panic.

Wonho's best friend was screaming at them to wait and not to come in, but it was too late. Kihyun opened the glass door decisively and stood without letting go of the frightened boy, analyzing the place in search of Hoseok.

And there he was: the brunette was sitting on one of the tables in the middle zone, with a big smile that illuminated the place. In front of him, the unknown girl was laughing while holding a tea cup near her mouth.

When Wonho's eyes rested on the newcomers, his smile faded instantly, replaced by an expression of surprise.

Quickly, Kihyun dragged him to the table and crossed his arms.

“What the…?” Wonho began, bewildered.

"Tell him," the pink-haired boy demanded of his friend.

Changkyun was overwhelmed by all the curious looks of some customers who were fixed on him because of his intrusion, but the pair of familiar brown eyes, which now watched him with confusion, were the ones that made him nervous the most.

The girl placed the cup on her plate and raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to speak. Her black curly hair fell gracefully on her shoulders, and her delicate face showed a very affable expression: she was so beautiful...

_What am I doing here? I'm just bothering them._

"I... I’m sorry for the intrusion," he apologized hastily, bowing. Then he tried to sneak away; he had already made a fool of himself enough for that day.

“Wait, wait, Changkyun!” Kihyun exclaimed, taking him by the arm and bringing him back.

“Changkyun?” the girl repeated in a whisper. Suddenly, his mouth was in the form of 'oh', as if she had just understood something and looked with complicity to Wonho. The brunette pressed his lips in a thin line and looked down in embarrassment. “So you’re the famous Changkyun... and you must be his friend," she went on animatedly. The black-haired boy frowned, not understanding the 'famous' thing and Kihyun just watched her with suspicion. “Nice to meet you! My name is Seoyul.” Then she got up and inclined her head towards them. “I was dying to meet you in person," she added in a low voice, covering the side of her mouth and approaching Changkyun so that Wonho wouldn’t hear her.

"Seoyul," Hoseok said with warning in his voice. She giggled and took a seat again.

“Why don’t you sit with us?” she suggested with joy. She seemed excited to meet him, and that just made Changkyun even more confused.

“I... well, I don’t know...”

"Thank you, but let’s leave it another day," Kihyun answered mordantly. “We wouldn’t like to interrupt your _date_ ," he added, emphasizing the last word.

“Date?” she repeated astonished. Seouyul looked at Wonho without understanding, but he seemed just as lost as her. “Sweetie, what are you talking about? I'm married," she explained with a giggle, showing the wedding ring in her left hand. “With his brother, more precisely.”

At that time, Changkyun felt the most stupid person on the planet, and a great relief flooded his body. Kihyun opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and remained silent: he didn’t know what to say either.

“I wanted to meet you before, you know? I even went to the campus to see if you were around, but Wonho didn’t allow me to..." Seoyul said, giving an annoyed look at his brother-in-law. “Even mom wants to meet you!”

Changkyun had no idea what was happening or why so many people wanted to meet him. He gave Wonho an inquisitive look; the brunette looked terribly embarrassed by the whole situation and finally spoke.

“Could you guys give us a moment?”

The request caused Seoyul to pout, but she finally gave in and got up; she took her bag and, before leaving, said goodbye to Changkyun, telling him that they should hang out another day. Kihyun remained frozen in place, still trying to understand what had just happened; it was then when Hyungwon made his appearance: he had been waiting outside until that moment, unable to intervene in the scene that had been set up inside.

After greeting his even more confused best friend, he took the pink haired boy out of the cafeteria, grabbing him by the shoulders.

Now there were only Wonho, Changkyun, and the awkward atmosphere that had formed between them.

"Well... that was awkward," said the brunette after an interminable moment of silence.

Changkyun let out the air he had been holding and finally began to speak: he felt the urgent need to explain himself.

“I'm so sorry, I... I didn’t know anything, forgive me, I shouldn’t have assumed things without asking you before and I-”

"Hey, hey, slow down" Wonho interrupted him calmly. He pointed to the chair in front of him, motioned for him to sit down, and Changkyun obeyed silently. “First of all, what happened to you these last three days? I called you so many times and you didn’t give signs of life...” he explained with affliction, “I thought something had happened to you and went to your place, but no one opened the door.”

Changkyun bit his lip and played with his fingers over the table.

“I wasn’t feeling very well...”

The warm touch he felt in his hands made him look up, meeting those eyes that calmed him and made him nervous at the same time; Wonho had stretched his arm out over the glass counter to hold his hand, and in his gaze he could see pure concern. He didn’t want to lie to him, and he felt terrible with himself for doing it anyways.

He sighed and gathered all the courage he had to tell him the truth.

“I... I saw you the other day with Seoyul and... and I thought... well, I thought wrong.” The words came out of his mouth without being able to stop them. “And I started overthinking why would you ask me out, if you were being serious about it...”

Wonho's eyes widened as the other spoke. The dark haired boy didn’t dare to look at his face and felt his cheeks get hot; the fact that Hoseok was silent didn’t help him to calm down.

"Of course I was being serious," he said at last. Wonho interlaced his fingers with his, not taking his eyes off him; the little boy's heart began to beat much faster and he noticed that his palms were sweating. “And I'll ask you out as many times as it takes... until you believe me, or until you get tired of me." he finished with a small, shy smile.

His smile... how he had missed his smile. Even his cheesy lines, he had missed him to death. Changkyun narrowed his eyes and, letting himself be carried away by the warm feeling that invaded him, he blurted out what was going through his head.

“I’ve missed you…”

Immediately, the black-haired boy turned his face aside, completely flushed by what he had just confessed: since when did he say that kind of things?

He tried to free himself from the grip, but Wonho didn’t let go. The brunette was watching him with a penetrating intensity and he could feel his heart beating frantically at his chest.

"Changkyun," he called, trying to keep a firm voice. “I like you. So much," he said slowly. The way the little boy blushed even more encouraged him to continue. “Do you know how hard it has been to hold myself this last month?” Changkyun swallowed and found himself unable to make any sound. Wonho spoke each time in a lower tone. “Do you know how hard it has been not being able to touch you... and kiss you?”

His whole body was turning to gelatin for his hypnotizing speech. He didn’t want Wonho to hold back from now on. He wanted to be his, to be embraced and protected by him...

“Then… do it.”

Wonho opened his eyes a little, but he narrowed them again.

“Changkyun... do you understand what you're saying?” The only thing Changkyun could do was nod shyly; there was no point in denying reality anymore. The older boy tried to suppress his enthusiasm, but at the end he couldn’t hide it. “So, do you want to go out... with me?”

And, for the first time in three days, Changkyun smiled before giving his answer.

“…Yes.”


	17. Hear me out

Wonho wasn’t good at hiding his feelings; when he heard the word 'yes' come out of Changkyun's mouth, he wanted to get up and jump of pure joy. A big smile formed on his pink lips and he tried to hide it in vain: he couldn’t help it... he was very happy.

His enthusiasm was obvious to Changkyun, who shook his head and sighed without losing his smile.

“So... now we’re boyfriends?”

The brunette let out a childlike chuckle as he spoke, and Changkyun boy released his hand, his cheeks blushing. That whole situation was embarrassing by itself, and Wonho wasn’t helping.

“You need to stop doing that.” Hoseok raised an eyebrow and widened his smile at Changkyun's nervousness. “Could you try to be less...? Well, you know.”

“Less what?” he urged him to continue.

Changkyun shifted in his seat, not knowing how to say it. Finally he decided to get straight to the point.

“Less cheesy.”

Wonho's mouth opened in fake offense.

“Oh, Changkyunnie, you can’t ask me that.”

“…Don’t call me that.”

“Do you prefer puppy?” he asked amused. The snort he received in response made him laugh tenderly: he enjoyed too much annoying his Changkyun, who was so ashamed that he had covered half his face with one hand.

Then, someone clearing her throat attracted both of their attention. The two turned their necks towards the person who was standing next to their table: she was a lady of fifty years, with short, dark hair; she looked at Wonho with disapproval and with his hands on her hips.

“Mom!” Hoseok exclaimed animatedly before getting up to hug her. Changkyun was surprised to hear that: what was his mother doing there?

The woman patted him on the back and pushed him away impatiently.

“What did I tell you about bringing your friends here?” she asked with a sour face.

“...That I should charge them double?” Wonho received a hit that made him laugh and surround his now smiling mother with an arm before speaking to Changkyun. “This is my mother," he explained proudly.

The black haired boy was so confused that it took him a couple of seconds to get up and bow at her properly.

“Ni-nice to meet you.”

“Oh, stop with the formalities!” she said, waving her hands. “All friends of my Hoseok will always be welcomed in my cafeteria.”

_Her cafeteria?_

Changkyun looked around and understood everything: so that was his mother's business...

“Ah! It's a really nice place," he hastened to say. It truly was a very cozy and pleasant place. Wonho's mother smiled warmly at him.

"Thank you, darling," she sighed, also glancing at the place with a tired face. “My Hoseok usually helps me maintain it, I don’t know what I would do without him." She looked at her son with adoration and Wonho smiled back. Changkyun also got a little smile for the beautiful relationship they had between the two: he stared at them, even feeling a little envious. “And what's your name, honey?”

The question took the little boy from his absorption and he lost his smile.

“I'm Lim Changkyun.”

She looked surprised hearing his name and she separated from her son, observing him incredulously.

“Is this the Changkyun that you never stop talking about?” The brunette’s cheeks blushed violently and looked at the woman with a face that said 'mom, I love you so much, but shut up please'. Finally, Wonho nodded feeling terribly embarrassed. “And why didn’t you say it before? Oh, honey, please sit down.”

Changkyun obeyed and the woman began to bombard him with questions about whether he wanted to drink or eat something, and that whenever he came there, everything would be on the house. Changkyun rejected her offers with kindness, but then she sat in front of him and started some kind of interrogation masked with gentle questions; the black haired boy tried to answer as best he could and looked at Wonho with panic.

"Mom," he called when he saw how she had cornered Changkyun; but she ignored him and continued with the conversation.

“Wonho told me you play the piano, how long have you been doing it?”

“Mom…”

“It’s been like... seven years.”

“Seven years? My God, then you must be so talented!”

“Mom.”

“And tell me, sweetie... do you have a girlfriend?”

“Mom!” Just then, both turned to Hoseok, who had red cheeks. The brunette took Changkyun by the hand and made him get up from his chair. “We're going for a walk," he said before dragging him to the exit of the cafeteria.

Changkyun let himself be carried away and looked back, saying goodbye to the woman as best he could.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Wonho slowed down after walking five minutes through the different streets; when they reached an old and lonely neighborhood, he finally calmed down and stopped, letting go of Changkyun's hand.

The brunette stared at nothing without saying a word, and the little boy was worried. Hoseok rubbed his neck in embarrassment and avoided looking at him as he spoke.

“I'm sorry about my mom...”

"Oh, don’t worry," the pianist replied hurriedly. "She was really nice.” _Except for the interrogation part, of course._

"I guess she really wanted to meet you," he explained with a nervous giggle. Changkyun raised an eyebrow and a small smile formed on his lips: he perfectly imagined Wonho talking about him day and night.

"She looked like a good person," he said, beginning to walk, putting his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt. The older boy advanced beside him and smiled warmly.

“Yes, she is…”

Wonho's face lit up when he spoke of her: you could tell he loved her very much. They continued walking wrapped in a pleasant silence; the breeze and the distant humming of the cars were the only sounds that accompanied them along the stroll.

"So... you have a married brother," said Changkyun, hitting a pebble on the asphalt ground.

Wonho nodded and looked up at the sky. “Dong-Sun is younger than me, but that little brat was in a hurry to get married," he explained cheerfully. “He and Seoyul always supported me and helped me a lot... especially with mom.”

Suddenly, his smile faded away and he stopped walking. Changkyun also stopped, afraid to ask him about what happened with his mother; however, he finally found the courage to do so.

“What happened?”

The brunette sighed and shook his head, resuming the walk; Wonho smiled again, but this time he did it with great sadness, which didn’t go unnoticed by the little boy.

“It was quite a shock for her to discover that her son didn’t just like girls.” Changkyun listened attentively, feeling the pain in his words. “We argued many times... but in the end mom accepted me, and I love her for that.”

They continued to move aimlessly, enveloped again by the silence; Changkyun simply didn’t know what to say, however, he felt that encouraging words wouldn’t be enough. Little by little, he walked closer to Wonho until his hand lightly touched his.

Hoseok smiled and interlaced his fingers with Changkyun’s, whose cheeks were flushed by the simple act of holding hands. Everything was so new to him that he wondered how long it would take him to get used to these little signs of affection.

A chuckle escaped Wonho's lips and Changkyun looked at him with annoyance.

“What?”

"Nothing..." said the older boy, unable to stop smiling. “It's just that I'm happy.”

Then he began to swing their interlaced hands from front to back with enthusiasm. The pianist rolled his eyes, and couldn’t help catching the smile that shone more than the sun.

His dimples made their appearance, and Wonho watched them tenderly: he still couldn’t believe Changkyun was his little boyfriend. _Mine and nobody else's._

Without taking his eyes off him, he began to slow down until he stopped, and Changkyun looked at him strangely; they stayed like that for a few seconds in which the black haired boy's heart was shaken by how he was being observed. Without warning, Wonho wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him toward him.

They stayed millimeters away, and all Changkyun could do was to put his hands on Wonho's chest and stare at him wide-eyed before his lips were caught by the other's.

Hoseok kissed him carefully, holding him firmly and bringing him as close as possible to him. He needed to make sure that the fact that Changkyun was there with him was real.

The small hands clung tightly to Wonho's shirt and closed his eyes, letting himself be carried away by the thousands of feelings that the elder provoked him; their mouths opened at the need to feel more, and both trembled when their tongues touched. With a little gasp, ChangKyun broke the kiss to look at both sides of the road, afraid that someone would come, but the street was silent and empty, giving them enough privacy to continue with their little make out session. Wonho reached for his mouth again with desire on his eyes, first going slowly and then moistening his thin lips with his tongue, caressing his hips on a way he knew Changkyun couldn’t resist. They started walking backwards, still kissing until the puppy’s back was resting on the wall of the street.

His heart was going a thousand times an hour and his head was spinning: he was only aware of the warm feeling that the pair of pink lips left on his. Wonho squeezed him against him and his hands slipped under Changkyun's sweatshirt, slowly caressing the bristling skin of his back. The younger sighed between the kisses: he felt very good in his arms that he wished to remain that way forever.

Little by little, the movement of his lips became slower; Wonho began to leave a trail of kisses from his commissure to finish on his forehead. Changkyun watched him trying to catch his breath and a little dazed, as if he had just awakened.

The brunette smiled at him tenderly and leaned back towards him, first giving him a short kiss, and then exploring his mouth with more eagerness. Changkyun's fine fingers rose up around his neck and pulled him closer: a warm sensation settled in his lower belly and invaded his body; he felt a pleasant tingle every time Wonho's tongue caressed his, every time his strong arms tightened against him, every time...

Suddenly, a great roar came out of Changkyun's belly and both of them opened their eyes. The black haired boy backed off, his cheeks even redder than they already were with embarrassment, and Hoseok began to laugh, resting his forehead on his.

"Shut up..." Changkyun demanded, completely embarrassed.

“The puppy is hungry,” he said in a mocking but tender tone.

The younger boy huffed at the annoying nickname, but didn’t find enough strength to get away from him: his pretty brown eyes were hypnotizing. Giving him one last peck on the tip of his nose, Wonho separated from him and pulled the phone out of the back pocket of his pants to check the hour.

"Soon it’ll be three o’clock... we still have time to eat something," he explained with a smile. Changkyun nodded and remained thoughtful; he had a weird feeling, as if he was forgetting something. “Is everything okay?” Wonho asked, stroking his arm as he saw his expression.

Suddenly, the light bulb went on in Changkyun's head and he felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown on him: his piano recital was at three o'clock in the afternoon.

"Oh shit..." he muttered, closing his eyes tightly. “I'm going to be late.”

“Late? For what?”

Panic rose up his throat and he walked away from Wonho, beginning to walk down the street nervously, not knowing what to do. The brunette followed him hurriedly to reach him, but the boy stopped suddenly and started walking in the opposite direction.

“The coordinator is going to kill me. God, what do I do now?”

“Changkyun!” Wonho's scream made him stop and finally look him in the eye. “For what are you going to be late?” he asked, grabbing him by the shoulders.

“For... my piano recital.”

Wonho took his phone out of his pocket to check how much time they had and finally spoke decisively.

“Trust me, you won’t.” Immediately, he took his hand before starting to run up the street. Changkyun followed his step as best he could; after two minutes, tiredness made its appearance and his legs began to weigh, bringing out his bad physical condition. However, the older one kept pulling him and he didn’t stop running.

When they passed MoMo Coffee, Changkyun knew they were heading to Wonho's car.

By the time they’d get to the recital, he would probably faint from fatigue on the piano.

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Hardly, Changkyun opened the door to the faculty hall and both walked briskly along the carpet in the center corridor. They had arrived ten minutes late and people had already taken seats. The little boy approached the front row where the music club coordinator was sitting and apologized numerous times, receiving a brief reprimand from him.

Then they both climbed the narrow stairs to the right and, behind the dark curtain, Changkyun left his backpack on the floor and fumbled out the sheet music and the case of his glasses still without catching his breath.

He was so nervous that he tried to open it from the wrong side; then, Wonho's cold hands settled on his and he looked into his eyes.

"Easy there," he murmured with a patient look. He took the case from between his fingers and opened it carefully, pulling out his glasses and putting them on him very delicately. Changkyun blinked a couple of times and pressed the scores against his chest: this situation reminded him of when Wonho had rushed to his recital to give him his newly arranged glasses, and he couldn’t keep his heart from beating wildly.

The brunette placed a lock of his black hair behind his ear and smiled tenderly before leaning down to give him a small kiss on the lips.

"Good luck out there," he said, winking at him.

He had even said the same words from two months ago... it was amazing how much their relationship had changed from that time.

Changkyun looked at him self-absorbed for a few seconds and walked towards the center of the stage with his cheeks slightly rosy. Once he took a seat on the bench, he placed the scores on the music stand while a voice on the speakers announced the piece he was about to play.

His eyes wandered momentarily to the audience, and he quickly spotted Wonho, who was the only person sitting in the back rows. The brunette waved at him animatedly and made a heart shape with his arms; the pianist couldn’t help but smile before concentrating on the instrument.

Taking a breath, he placed his right foot on the pedal and his fingertips on the cold keys. He felt a warm sensation rise in his chest and reach to his fingers: he was nervous, but also excited.

He was going to show that person so important to him his confidence on stage. He was going to show him his feelings through his music. He was going to let him know who Lim Changkyun really was.

_"Wonho... hear me out."_

And then, he started playing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy just wanted to thank you guys for the support, hope you're enjoying the chapters!! Love ya <333 (oh and yeah, prepare for the angst huhu)


	18. I don't want to let you go

The last weeks of June arrived, and with them, the summer holidays came too. Changkyun was going to Geochang to his parents' house, saying goodbye to the first semester of the college year. They probably would also spend a few days on Jeju Island to visit his paternal grandparents.

Kihyun and Hyunwoo insisted on accompanying him to the train station, but the little boy refused their offer, since it was going to be his boyfriend who was going to take him. Although he omitted that detail.

He still hadn’t told his friends that he was officially dating Wonho now, but he suspected they already knew. By now it would be obvious to them.

“Did you take your comics?” Kihyun asked at his side. Changkyun packed his last sweater into the suitcase that rested on his bed before turning to his worried roommate. “And your glasses?”

"Yes, mom," the black haired boy replied with a small smile.

"Stop standing over the kid," Hyunwoo said patiently from the doorway of the bedroom. Kihyun gave him one of his snorts and followed Changkyun to the bathroom and continued to ask him questions while he brushed his teeth.

After answering everything, Kihyun was calmer. The black haired found that he still had ten minutes left, so he decided to take a quick shower.

His two friends waited for him in the living room: the pink-haired was also going to take a train that afternoon to spend the summer with his family, and Hyunwoo was going to stay in their apartment to work in a nearby restaurant and thus earn some extra money.

A while later, someone knocked on the door, and Kihyun couldn’t help but be surprised to see that it was Wonho. The brunette was standing in front of him, with a Hawaiian short sleeved shirt that could only suit him and his usual piercings and choker; with nervousness, the newcomer greeted him and asked if he could come in.

A strange smile formed on the lips of the shorter one and he stepped aside to let him in; Only a minute passed and Wonho was already cornered by Changkyun's two friends: he was sitting on the living room sofa, and the two boys were standing in front of him and folding their arms.

The only thing Wonho could do in that situation was swallow.

“Are you hungry? Or do you want to drink something, maybe?” Kihyun asked, trying to be nice, but he just made Wonho uncomfortable, who shook his head with a forced smile.

“Are you here to pick up our Changkyunnie?” Hyunwoo asked in a neutral tone. Wonho was relieved to talk to him, since he was much calmer than his short friend. Besides, he had seen him more times at the sports center, and they had engaged some conversations from time to time.

“Yeah...” he answered rubbing his hands on his black, ripped jeans. The sound of running water told him that his boyfriend was probably taking a shower, but still he chose to ask the obvious. “Is Changkyun in the bathroom?”

Both nodded and remained silent; time passed and the awkwardness continued to grow. Wonho shrunk on the sofa, thinking of what to say to break the ice.

“Since how long have you two been dating?”

Kihyun's question made all his muscles freeze. Somehow, he felt as if he were standing before Changkyun's parents, asking for permission to go out with their son.

“For like… a week,” Wonho tried to answer decisively, but spoke in a higher tone than he would have liked. Why was he so scared? They were only his boyfriend's friends, it wasn’t like they were going to forbid him to go out with him. Now he and Changkyun were together, so what? There was nothing wrong with that. “Look, you don’t have to worry, I-”

However, he stopped when Hyunwoo approached him and lifted the sleeve of his black shirt to show him his muscular right arm. To say that Wonho was confused was to fall short; the brunette’s eyes alternated between his arm and his robotic expression, without understanding why the hell he was showing him his biceps.

"Changkyunnie has strange habits when he drinks alcohol," explained Hyunwoo, pointing to some teeth marks on his arm. Kihyun nodded, remembering how two days ago the pianist had succumbed again under the influence of soju. “You think you can handle it?”

Wonho's mouth was slightly ajar in disbelief. He finally giggled nervously, hoping that it was some kind of joke, but the seriousness of both told him otherwise and he cleared his throat feeling uncomfortable.

"I already knew," he said, rubbing his neck. Of course he knew it, since he had had the pleasure of being bitten by a drunk and adorable Changkyun.

This time, it was Kihyun who approached him. “He's a very clumsy child," warned the pink-haired boy. “He gets distracted very easily with anything, so you have to be careful. And besides," he added, pointing him with his index finger, "you must make sure that he wears his glasses, even if he doesn’t want to.”

All Wonho could do was nod repeatedly.

"Also, try to make him go out from time to time," Hyunwoo added, pulling back the sleeve of his shirt. “It's hard for him to socialize, he’ll always prefer staying at home than going out and have fun.”

The brunette took mental notes of all the recommendations and nodded again.

"And lastly," Kihyun said, squinting. Wonho swallowed, waiting for some threat to come, "take care of him.” The worry was evident in his words and Wonho didn’t know what to say. Kihyun took a seat next to him and looked at him with a tired expression. “It's the first time that Changkyun is dating someone... and that's why we're worried.”

Hoseok's eyes widened in surprise: _Am I... his first boyfriend? How come I didn’t know?_

Silence invaded the room for a while until Wonho decided to speak: the news that Changkyun had never dated anyone before had caught him off guard.

"I'll take care of him," he said with a genuine smile. That was the pure truth, he would never allow anyone to harm him; suddenly, he remembered the night Changkyun had clung to him in his car, asking him to take him home. He still didn’t know what had happened in the past, and that angered and frightened him at the same time; he had clear that, from now on, he would always be there to protect him. “I promise.”

That caused some relief in the two boys; Kihyun smiled at him and nodded, while Hyunwoo patted him on the shoulder. The fourth-year boy couldn’t help but smile: it seemed that he had just been accepted into that strange family, and somehow he was happy about it.

Just then, the bedroom door opened and Changkyun came out: he wore a striped sweater and held a denim jacket in one hand, and in the other he held the handle of his wheeled suitcase. His hair was still wet from the shower, and he looked with a confused expression at the situation before him.

Wonho thought he looked as cute as always.

"Oh," he murmured, raising his eyebrows. “Wonho? You arrived early..." The aforementioned pressed his lips together and laced his fingers on his knees as Changkyun approached them. The black haired boy looked at Kihyun suspiciously. “What were you guys doing to him?”

The shorter one wasn’t offended by the accusation and shrugged with a relaxed expression.

“We were just having an adult conversation, right?” Wonho nodded with a smile and Changkyun frowned, making a pout for being excluded from the group of adults. But he decided not to make a fuss about it and he made a gesture with his head to the brunette, indicating that it was time to leave.

Wonho got up and followed him to the door, but not before saying goodbye properly to the other two. The smile he received from Kihyun and Hyunwoo gave him a bad feeling, as if it had the subliminal message: ‘if you break your promise, you’re a dead man'.

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Since they had left the apartment and even on their way in his car, a strange feeling chased Wonho and didn’t leave him alone. That's why he had lost himself in his thoughts, looking at nothing and trying to find an explanation to why he had a bad feeling.

The voice of the woman who echoed through the station's speakers brought Wonho out of his reverie. She was announcing the arrival of the train whose destination was Geochang: it was Changkyun’s train.

He turned on his seat to the little boy, who was sitting next to him on one of the wooden benches scattered across the station; Changkyun was too distracted folding a leaflet about the environment that a man had given them to realize that his train had arrived.

Gently, he placed a hand on his knee and caressed the skin exposed through the holes of his jeans, managing to capture his attention.

“Come on, your train is here.”

Changkyun stretched and finally got up; both walked very close to each other until they reached the area where the ticket should be shown and only passengers could pass. Wonho took a deep breath, thinking about the best way to say goodbye: the idea of not seeing his boyfriend again for an entire month didn’t appeal to him very much; rather, he would be glad that suddenly the train suffered some technical breakdown and couldn’t leave the station.

That way, he would have Changkyun for him.

He shook his head, scolding himself for his immature thoughts. Changkyun must have missed his family, it was so selfish of him wanting to keep the puppy for himself.

"I have to get going, hyung," Changkyun said, seeing that Wonho didn’t say anything. He gave him a small smile that showed his dimples and turned around with the intention of leaving. It was then that Hoseok reacted and grabbed his arm.

“Hey, hey, what kind of farewell is that?” he said offended. The dark haired boy frowned without understanding. “Do you think you can leave me here for a month and get away with it?”

Changkyun thought for a moment before answering with a rather expressionless 'yep' that annoyed Wonho. By now, he should be fairly used to his poor signs of affection and his typical replies full of apparent indifference and coldness, but that never failed to annoy him.

And Changkyun knew it.

"You're very cruel," Wonho muttered, pouting and pulling on the other's sweater. “You hurt my heart.”

Changkyun's thin lips curved and he shook his head, sighing for Wonho's childish attitude; they hadn’t been dating for a long time, and he could predict his behavior. “I knew you'd say that.”

“Do you know what’s the only thing that can cure me?” Wonho inquired, still a little annoyed at the coldness with which he was being treated. Then he pointed to his own cheek and leaned toward him, hoping to receive a kiss.

Changkyun's eyes wandered to the sides to check that no one was looking at them and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Not satisfied, Wonho pulled him close and wrapped him in a warm hug.

The small boy gave in and returned the hug, hiding his red cheeks against his chest. Wonho felt as if a hand were squeezing his throat, and his eyes began to itch: for some reason, he felt that he shouldn’t let go.

Wonho hugged him tightly and they stayed that way for a long time, swinging gently to the sides; none of them wanted to say goodbye.

When they finally parted, Hoseok hided his anguish and fondly caressed his black hair, giving him a sweet kiss on his forehead and telling him not to forget to send a message as soon as he arrived at his parents' house. Changkyun nodded and smiled shyly before going with his suitcase to the counter where he had to show the ticket.

The pianist was walking along the platform and, just before getting into the train, he turned to say goodbye with the hand to Wonho, who hadn’t moved from his place. The elder waved at him animatedly from the distance and sniffed his watery nose caused for having contained the tears. He couldn’t help it, he had always been a crybaby.

He tried to ignore the bad feeling that was eating his head and wished that the next month would pass quickly so he could hug his Changkyun again.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

A lot of heat and boredom, that defined Changkyun’s holidays perfectly. He wasn’t the type to want to go back to school because he missed his friends, mainly because in his previous schools he never had any friends to miss.

But this time it was different. He missed the nightly rehearsals of his flatmate's plays, the comfortable silences he shared with Hyunwoo and, of course, the scenes that those two made when they tried to act like his parents.

However, what he missed the most was the giggle of a certain idiot, which hadn’t listened in person for a month. Chatting on the phone with Wonho and phone calls had helped a little to make his stay on Jeju Island a little more bearable.

He had arrived at the student residence the previous day, and had spent most of the night talking to Kihyun about what they had done on their holydays and sharing a lot of funny experiences. Maybe he shouldn’t have told Kihyun about how he fell from his grandfather's boat when they went all together fishing, because he laughed like crazy at him and called Hyunwoo just to tell him the funny but embarrassing anecdote.

And today was the first day of classes; his nerves were killing him for seeing Wonho again.

He was dying to see him and hug him. But of course he wouldn’t tell him, because that would only increase his ego. Just imagining Wonho taking pleasure in the fact that he had missed him made him smile on his way to college.

On the steps of the entrance of the faculty, he met Minhyuk, who was absorbed in his mobile and didn’t notice his presence until he passed by his side. The redhead greeted him with one of his typical cheerful smiles and asked him about his holydays. It was the first time they spoke since those messages they exchanged over the phone and Changkyun tried not to feel uncomfortable, answering him as best he could.

He still didn’t know if Minhyuk had lied to him or if he really thought that Wonho had a girlfriend and had only warned him without any ulterior motive; but he preferred to opt for the second option and turn the page of all that matter.

He said goodbye to him and went into the building, thinking that Minhyuk didn’t have any reason to lie to him, and that he surely warned him with good intentions; when he was walking through the corridors, he noticed that many eyes were resting on him. An unpleasant sensation ran through his body, but even so he decided to ignore the obtrusive eyes that chased him everywhere and entered his class.

He could momentarily forget what had just happened thanks to Jooheon, who greeted him cheerfully and, for the first time in the year, offered to sit at the desk on his right for the new semester, saying that, that way, they could talk more and share notes or books from time to time.

Changkyun accepted with a smile; Jooheon had never tried to approach him before, and he finally felt that he was beginning to be integrated into Wonho's group. The morning classes ended earlier than expected, and after telling the blonde that they would meet in the cafeteria in ten minutes, he went to the second floor to go to the fourth-year classroom: he wanted, for once, to be him who waited for Wonho to leave class and surprise him.

He pressed his folder to his chest feeling that, with each step he took, his pulse was accelerating more and more. Just when he reached the second floor, a girl who passed by his side bumped into him, hitting his shoulder and causing him to drop his briefcase, all his notes and scores scattered on the floor.

“Oh, sorry!” the straight bangs girl apologized hastily and helped him put the sheets back in the folder; when they both got up, Changkyun thought that her face was familiar. He quickly realized that she was a member of the health and maternity club and bowed his head in gratitude before reaching his hand to grab his briefcase, which she still held between her fingers.

But when he grabbed it, the girl put on strength and didn’t let go of it. The black haired boy looked at her and noticed something strange in his face: she was observing him with half-closed eyes, and contempt was evident in her expression.

“Lim Changkyun?”

A voice behind him echoed in the hallway and he turned around, meeting a girl with long dark hair who was in his class: she was with crossed arms, and beside her was a big guy who had never seen before and another member of Wonho’s club. There was something threatening in their eyes and Changkyun took a step back, feeling intimidated.

"Ye- yeah," he murmured in a tiny voice.

A smile appeared on the dark haired girl's lips and she advanced towards him, causing the little boy to continue backing until he leaned against the wall of the corridor. The other three also surrounded him and Changkyun wished he could flee from there and get away from those people, but fear prevented him from reacting.

“It’s him?” the big guy asked with a mocking smile. The others nodded and Changkyun swallowed hard.

“Who the fuck you think you are to flirt with Wonho oppa?” the girl with bangs asked aggressively. “Do you really think he could like a little shit like you, huh?”

_So all of this is because of Wonho..._

Changkyun looked down in fright, but the boy grabbed his jaw hard and lifted his head.

"We'll make sure you don’t dare speak to him again," he hissed, pressing his fingers into his skin. It hurt like hell, but even so Changkyun's voice didn’t come out. He felt a knot on his throat and his whole body was trembling: it was happening again.

His school years were haunting him once again. He was about to fall back into the nightmare he thought he had left behind some years ago, but this time it wasn’t because he was considered a weirdo, but because of Wonho.

Then, the bell that signaled the end of classes sounded; the four of them left laughing, leaving him completely alone, leaning against the wall with a lost look and with a single thought repeating over and over again in his head.

_I should never have agreed to be his boyfriend._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'M SORRY FOR THE ANGST, but I warned you soooo... anyways, bad people are gonna hurt our puppy :((( (I feel like a bad person ughhh) sigh... I think tomorrow or the day after I'll upload another chapter, since I'm almost finishing it! Hope you guys enjoy it, lots of love and kisses <33333


	19. The storm

That day was their first month anniversary. Wonho was very excited to see Changkyun again: he was dying to hug and kiss him. He was counting down the minutes for the economy class to end to go find his boyfriend and give him the gift that he had prepared for the special occasion.

The day before, after helping his mother clean the cafeteria after all the customers left, she cooked muffins with him just for Changkyun. Her mother already knew that they were dating, and she was so excited that she also wanted to participate in the gift for the little boy.

Wonho glanced at the lilac bag that rested on the floor next to his desk; from above, the content of the plastic box could be seen: the muffins were covered in a dark blue frosting that looked like the cookie monster. He had even made the bulging eyes of the television character that Hoseok liked so much since his childhood days.

And of course, the muffins were low in fat, since Wonho was very interested in healthy cooking. He smiled satisfied, imagining the face that Changkyun would make when he saw the gift: he thought it would be fun to bother him a little and ask him for a favor in return, like a kiss, or maybe two.

When the bell finally rang, he hurriedly picked up his backpack and bag; he said goodbye to Hyungwon and Minhyuk, who were going to stay a little longer in class to review some notes that the redhead didn’t understand and left the classroom, without being aware that Minhyuk had stuck his brown eyes on him with a strange smile on his lips.

His heart pounded on his chest like crazy as he walked down the hall and, before turning the corner, he stopped leaving things on the ground to pull his cell phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and look at his reflection. He combed his bangs with his fingers and found that his choker was in place, that his teeth were impeccably white and that, in fact, he was as attractive as always.

With a smile, he put back his phone on his jeans, pressed his blue sky shirt with his hands and picked up the things on the floor before continuing his way. However, as soon as he saw Changkyun leaning against the wall just a few meters away from him, he stopped short and his smile widened: was he waiting for him?

He was touched by that gesture and began to approach him, with a tremendous desire to embrace him.

“Changkyunnie?” he called animatedly, already at his side. The aforementioned seemed not to hear him and had his eyes fixed on the ground; Wonho called again without receiving any response and his smile was replaced by a pout. “Hey, Changkyunnie," he insisted, shaking his arm covered by a large gray sweatshirt.

It was then that he managed to catch his attention and Changkyun lifted his catlike eyes to look at him.

"Ah... hi," he greeted him with a weak voice.

It pained Wonho to receive that greeting after not seeing each other for almost a month, but the feeling of worry was greater. “Is something wrong?” Changkyun shook his head and forced himself to smile. The older one observed him without believing him and noticed that his briefcase was lying on the floor a few meters away from him. “Isn’t that your briefcase?”

Before receiving an answer, he bent down to pick it up and offered it to the black-haired boy, who grabbed it hastily and pressed it to his chest.

“Thanks... I must have dropped it.”

It was obvious that something was wrong, and Wonho wanted to know it so badly. He didn’t want to force him to tell what the problem was, so he decided it would be a good idea to give him his gift to try to cheer him up.

“Changkyunnie, you know that today is a special day, right?” he asked, giving him a little poke with the shoulder. He gave him a confused expression that told him he had no idea. “Eish... you’re always like this. We've been together for a month," he explained with a pout.

The pianist parted his lips to say something, but closed them and looked down at his feet.

"I'm going to ignore that coldness of yours and I'll give you your gift anyways," Wonho went on with theatricality before offering him the lilac bag, "but just because I'm a good person.”

Changkyun's eyes opened slightly when he saw the gift and only when Hoseok began to swing the bag in the air he decided to take it hesitantly. He glanced inside and saw the box with the muffins; he pressed his lips together and stared at the smiling faces of the cookie monsters without showing any expression.

"My mother helped me make them," Wonho explained proudly. “Believe me, you'll never find any better muffins.”

The murmurs of classmates walking down the corridor beside them made Changkyun look at their judging expressions; his face reflected his affliction and he turned his gaze back to Hoseok, whose expectation to know his opinion of the gift was evident.

"I..." he muttered, squeezing the handle of the bag, "I'm not hungry.” With that, he returned the gift and Hoseok held it between his fingers, staring at the dark haired boy with wide eyes. The smile on his face began to fade until it vanished: he hoped it was a joke and that Changkyun was really excited about the gift.

But when Changkyun turned around and walked down the hall, Hoseok knew it was no joke. He remained still in place, watching the small figure of his boyfriend get lost in the distance and blinked numerous times.

Suddenly, he felt naive and stupid. His eyes began to redden and his throat narrowed painfully: his heart ached. A lot.

_No... something must have happened to him._

That's what Hoseok told himself; Changkyun may sometimes be cold, but he just had crossed the line. Something must have happened, he was sure of it. He rubbed his eyes to prevent any tears from falling and took a breath while throwing his head back.

When his breathing calmed down, he looked down at the inside of the bag: the bulging eyes of the muffins seemed to say silently 'you fucked up everything' and Hoseok wrinkled his nose.

"Don’t look at me like that," he reproached them sulkily. “Changkyun just has a bad day, that's all.”

He knew how Changkyun was like, so he should be twice as understanding. He would give him space not to overwhelm him, surely in the end he would return to him to tell him what the problem was. Or so he hoped.

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_"You’re so fucking disgusting. Do you think you're special because oppa knows you exist? Fucking die already."_

“Hey.” Jooheon's touch on his shoulder startled him and he turned on his desk to look at him. The concern was evident on his face. “Are you okay? You’re a little pale.”

Changkyun crumpled the note that he had found on his desk and squeezed it tightly in his fist so that the blond wouldn’t see it. He gave him the best fake smile he could and nodded; Jooheon insisted a little more that if he wasn’t feeling well, he should go home, but the little boy kept answering that everything was fine.

Actually, nothing was fine. _Nothing._

Those guys he'd met two weeks ago in the fourth-year hallway hadn’t left him alone since then. First were the notes: every day, there was a new one in his desk, threatening him with words to get him away from Wonho. The scores he carried inside his notebook were torn apart the day he took them out in the auditorium to practice. Inquisitive looks chased him everywhere, ‘accidental’ shoves... they even cornered once in the bathroom and hit his stomach until he kneeled down and begged them to stop. It was becoming unbearable.

People spoke, and Changkyun turned a deaf ear; however, he couldn’t prevent a voice from taking control of his head and torturing him every day. He was going down to the ground floor of the faculty when it appeared again.

_Fucking disgusting. Die already, everyone would be happier if you just disappeared. Die. Die. Die._

He grabbed the handrail on the stairs and closed his eyes tightly, trying to get that voice out of his mind, but finding himself unable to do it. He stayed like that for a while, trying to recover, but a female giggle from the upper floor made him raise his head. Before he could move away, a hard object hit his head and broke, releasing a slimy substance that ran down his hair and stained his entire face.

He brought a hand to his cheek, and verified that what he had on his face was egg white. He didn’t even look up again when he removed the shells that had remained attached to his hair and finished descending the steps with apparent calm, heading to the bathrooms.

Once inside the toilets, he threw his backpack on the floor and went to the sink; he opened the tap with trembling hands and washed his hair and face with little delicacy, wishing he could disappear, wishing he could go home and hide there forever.

He looked at the mirror, and it returned his haggard reflection and impoverished by the lack of food and sleep: he looked like the Changkyun of his high school years. He thought he had overcome it, that he had become braver, stronger. But he was freaking afraid. And even then he wasn’t going to allow himself to cry, at least not in front of those people, much less in front of Wonho.

He remembered Hoseok's concern during those last days, how he tried to be understanding and patient with him so that he would tell him if anything happened to him. And it was even more painful to remember how he had rejected and ignored him in equal measure.

He just couldn’t allow that, because of him, Wonho fell into the same pit for which his fears and insecurities were dragging him. Since they had started dating, people also started talking about Hoseok, describing him with nasty words that made his stomach twist inside of him.

He preferred to suffer alone... it was the best for both of them.

“Changkyun!”

Hyungwon's voice made him jump and turn with the drops of wet hair sliding down his forehead. Beside the slender boy, who was watching him with a frown, was Minhyuk. The redhead paled at the sight of him, and immediately looked down at his feet. Changkyun couldn’t ask himself why he was reacting like that since Hyungwon had taken a couple of steps until he was right in front of him.

Hyungwon, in spite of his usual somnolent aspect, always kept a smile or a caress on his hair for him, but this time it was completely different. He had never seen him that angry.

“I looked for you everywhere, what are you doing here?” He took a moment to rest his eyes on Changkyun's drenched hair. “What happened to your hair?” He couldn’t come up with any credible excuse, so the pianist just shrugged his shoulders and avoided eye contact. He received a sigh in response and the older one turned to Minhyuk. “Could you give us a moment?”

The redhead intended to say something, but he remained silent with a guilty expression and left, leaving them alone in the bathrooms.

“Look, Changkyun...” he called with a tired expression, “I don’t want to get into your personal life... but, are you having problems with Wonho?”

The question made his body tense.

“Why you ask?” Changkyun answered lowering the tone of his voice, without knowing very well what to say.

“Why do I ask?” Hyungwon repeated incredulously. “You just need to take a look at you both to know that something is wrong.”

_Was it that obvious?_

"Everything’s just fine," he finally replied, avoiding eye contact for fear of facing those eyes that were judging him.

Hyungwon put his hands on his shoulders and got him to raise his face.

“Wonho won’t talk to us,” he explained seriously. “He doesn’t want to see us, and he hasn’t been around here for two days.” The news made Changkyun's heart shudder with guilt. “Are you sure that everything’s just _fine_?”

The accumulation of emotions inside the black haired burst and made him shove Hyungwon’s hands roughly. He didn’t want him asking any more questions. He didn’t want to talk about Wonho or the fourth-year people. He didn’t want to know anything.

"Stay out of it, it’s not of your business," he muttered defensively.

Hyungwon looked at him with disappointment, making him feel the worst person on the planet. He couldn’t stand it another second, so he went around him and picked up his backpack with the intention of leaving, but the older one spoke again and he stopped.

“I told you not to hurt him.” Those words made all of Changkyun's muscles freeze and an unpleasant sensation flood his body. “He was crying because of you, you know?”

The sadness and anger were evident in Hyungwon's voice, and Changkyun didn’t dare to turn around to face him. Just imagining Hoseok crying because of him made his heart twist, and he just couldn’t take it anymore.

He left without looking back, tightening the straps of his backpack hard, biting the inside of his cheeks to avoid shedding any tears. Changkyun never cried, and that wasn’t going to be the exception.

He left the faculty and walked through the campus under the gray clouds that threatened to become a storm very soon. He advanced without slowing down, trying to convince himself that getting away from Wonho was the right thing to do.

_It's best for both of us._

He didn’t know how long he had been walking, but he had passed the student residence a long time ago. His legs started to hurt because of how fast he was going, and he didn’t care one bit.

_I don’t want him to be hurt._

Hoseok's warm smile broke through his memories and he began to decelerate slowly. In his mind, the pink lips of the brunette turned into a pout, and his beautiful hands pulled on his sweater, trying to attract his attention as always.

_"Changkyunnie, listen to me!" "Look what shirt I bought the other day... it looks great to me, right?" "Ah... I'm sure you never imagined having such a handsome boyfriend."_

Before he knew it, Changkyun was standing in the middle of a sidewalk on the outskirts of the campus. The icy breeze made him shudder and his hair was still wet; he could feel the drops coming down his neck, seeping into the sweater: if he didn’t dry off soon, he would surely catch a cold.

He looked up at the sky and, just then, a thunder rumbled in the distance, but the boy didn’t even flinch. The only image he had in his head was the one of those brown eyes that used to give a cheeky wink just to annoy him, that smiled too when his owner was happy, that always watched him with adoration and tenderness. And now, those eyes were reddened, sad, letting out the tears that his coldness had caused.

Changkyun never cried. Or at least until that day.

He was broken from inside, and he couldn’t help crying in silence. Without stopping looking at the clouds, he wished he could be like them, fly through the sky and evaporate from this world; that way, maybe the people he had hurt so badly forgot about him and could be happy.

And yet, a small part of Changkyun wanted to be selfish. He wanted to be happy too and be with Wonho despite what people said; it was then that tiny part of his being took control of his body and made him pick up his phone from his pants pocket.

For once in his life, he wished to leave behind his fears to be happy.

With languor and still sobbing, he put on his glasses that he kept inside his denim jacket and dialed Hyungwon's phone number. He put it on his ear and, while waiting for him to answer, a few drops began to descend from the sky.

The tightness in his chest grew stronger as the rain moistened his hair and his glasses even more.

“Hello?”

Changkyun took a few seconds to answer. But when he did, he spoke decisively: this time, he would express himself without fear, without hesitation.

“Give me the address of Wonho's place.”

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Breathing hard, soaked from head to toe and holding his also wet backpack with one hand: that was the image that Wonho found on the door of his house, in an old apartment block.

“Changkyun...” he murmured totally surprised by the appearance of the small boy in his apartment. The dark haired boy just watched him through his fogged up glasses; his heart was beating so fast it could get out of his chest, and nerves were eating his stomach.

Changkyun was happy to see Hoseok there, in front of him, with his messy brown hair covering his eyes, wearing a gray and pink tracksuit and an expression that had gone from surprise to worry.

_I’ve missed him to death…_

Without a word, he dropped his backpack to the tiled floor and hugged Wonho almost without strength, but at the same time clinging to him as if his life depended on it. He needed those arms to wrap him with his comforting warmth, he desperately needed it.

However, Wonho's body remained rigid. Changkyun didn’t pull off until a while later, hurt by the rejection that, after all, he deserved for how he had treated him the last days.

When their eyes met, the pianist discovered that what was in them wasn’t rejection, but a mixture of sadness and gratitude. Hoseok raised his fingers and gently stroked his wet cheeks before pulling him to him and kissing him, letting out all his contained emotions. Changkyun closed his eyes and tilted his head, kissing him back clumsily and feeling that his heart was going to burst.

They separated a few seconds, enough to observe each other and smile before kissing again with more desire, walking blindly into the interior of the apartment.

It was that day when Changkyun realized that he was totally and completely in love with Shin Hoseok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy my sweet donuts!! I wanted to apologize real quick for making our puppy suffer and for the rejection of the cute as hell muffins I'M SORRY CDSVDS anyways, just wanted to say that this fic will end soon, just three chapters more to go! Hope you liked it until now, next chapter our lovebirds will have some sweet intimacy woOPS *insert perverted moon emoji*  
> Well, that's it for today, we'll see in one or two days! <3333


	20. Soju's ice cream

Wonho's soft lips gave him a comforting feeling, as if he were at home; his strong arms surrounded him, sticking him to his muscular body, telling him in silence that he was there for him and that he would protect him.

Once inside the apartment, the older boy closed the door clumsily without breaking the kiss. Changkyun leaned against the wall and tangled his fingers in the brown hair of the opposite, trembling each time his lips caressed his, allowing their tongues to meet and savoring his sweet and bitter taste at the same time, leaving him an aftertaste like soju...

Changkyun suddenly opened his eyes and separated from Hoseok, watching him in surprise. Wonho blinked a couple of times and showed a confused expression; it was then that the little boy realized his appearance: his eyes were red and his ears and cheeks were rosy.

_Is he drunk?_

Wonho seemed to read his thoughts and repeatedly shook his head and hands.

“Ah, Changkyunnie, I-I'm not drunk!” he explained nervously. The black haired boy's eyes wandered to the table in the small living room, where there was two empty soju bottles, several cans of ramen and another of vanilla ice cream. Wonho turned his neck momentarily in that direction and scratched his eyebrow with embarrassment. “Well... I drank a little, but I promise I know what I’m doing!” he insisted with sincerity.

His frustration was kind of funny, and Changkyun couldn’t help but smile quietly: Wonho avoided looking directly at him and ran his fingers through his bangs in an attempt to fix his messy hair. Hoseok looked like he just got out of bed, and seemed embarrassed to look that frumpy in front of him.

But he couldn’t make any comment about it since a chill ran all over his body before sneezing. Wonho looked at him alarmed, and only then he remembered that Changkyun was completely soaked. Almost panicking, he took him by the hand and led him to his bedroom; on their way, the pianist noticed that the romantic movie ‘The Notebook’ was on the television set in the living room and laughed to himself.

Wonho rummaged through his closet for a while until he pulled out a pair of jeans, a green sweatshirt, clean socks, and underwear and offered them to Changkyun in an orderly, folded pile of clothes.

"You're going to catch a cold if you don’t take a hot shower," Hoseok explained as the boy accepted the clothes. Changkyun sniffed as he silently watched the mountain of clothes in his hands: they would surely look huge on him. Wonho pointed to the wooden door next to him, indicating that it was the bathroom and, before leaving, he hesitated for a few seconds and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek with his ears red as tomatoes.

Changkyun stared at the door he had left, raising his fingers to his cheek and smiling tenderly. After leaving the clothes on the bed, he took a moment to study the older boy's bedroom: in front of the bed, there was a dressing table with numerous cosmetic products for skin care and a jewel box containing all of Wonho's favorite accessories, including his chokers. At the foot of the table, there were several bags of expensive clothing stores.

On the bedside table, there were a couple of framed photos: in one of them, a teenager Wonho was hugging his mother in the doorway of her cafeteria. Maybe it was the opening of the establishment. And in the other one, Wonho, Minhyuk and Hyungwon were sitting around a restaurant table smiling and, judging by their reddened cheeks and the amount of soju bottles in the photo, they were probably drunk as well. It was probably taken in their first year of college.

Above the geometrically patterned cushions on the bed rested a cookie monster teedy: his bulging eyes brought back the bad memory of the rejection of the muffins, which Wonho and his mother had put so much effort to make: he still had to apologize for that... and for many other things.

Shaking his head, he finally went into the bathroom and took out his wet clothes and glasses. Once under the hot water of the shower, all his muscles relaxed and he closed his eyes, as if he had just obtained his first moment of tranquility after a long time. Only when he washed his head and a pleasant smell of almonds flooded his nostrils he realized that he was in Wonho's house, showering in his bathroom, using his soap.

His heart began to beat faster, and he decided to ignore the nervousness he was feeling. Once showered and dried, he left the bathroom with his hair still a little wet and began to put on the clothes that Hoseok had lent him; indeed, they were too big.

He looked at himself in the dressing table mirror and sighed: his slim legs looked even more thinner when they were wrapped in the older boy's torn jeans, which supposedly had to fit tight, and the sleeves of the sweatshirt were too long and loose, although Changkyun used to wear clothes as big as those. The only thing of his size were the white socks.

The clothes smelled like Wonho; that sweet, springy smell had become familiar to him, something he never wanted to forget. For the first time, he had to wear glasses to feel himself, so he took them to clean them with the sleeve of the sweatshirt and put them on.

He left the room with his heart beating on his chest, hoping to meet Hoseok, but that wasn’t the case; the TV screen was off, the coffee table in the living room was free of any food can, and its surface was brighter than when he arrived at the apartment: it was obvious that Wonho had taken advantage of the fact that he was showering to clean it. From a half-open door on his right came the sounds of plates and pots, so Changkyun supposed it was the kitchen.

Taking small steps, he took a seat on the black sofa in the living room and waited patiently for Hoseok to return; meanwhile, he played with the sleeves of the dark green sweatshirt, noticing for the first time that the phrase "Life is C between B and D" was embroidered on the fabric.

He was so absorbed in his distraction that he didn’t realize that Wonho had placed a mug of steaming liquid on the coffee table until he caressed his head to get his attention.

Changkyun looked at him a bit startled and Hoseok smiled before sitting down next to him; the younger noticed that his hair was better combed, and that the tracksuit had been replaced by a frayed black pants, a white shirt and a gray cardigan. Seeing him without any cosmetic or makeup on his face made his face look softer.

Changkyun thought he looked attractive in any way.

"Drink it, so you'll get warm." he said while pointing to the cup with his chin. The dark haired boy hesitated a few seconds before taking the warm bowl between his still wrinkled fingers because of the hot bath and took a sip.

Wonho raised his legs to the sofa as he watched Changkyun lick his lips when he discovered it was milk with honey and gave him another long drink. “I know you like coffee more... but I ran out of it," explained Wonho, a little nervous, taking a flowered cushion from the sofa and hugging it against his chest. When doing this, it was exposed the casing of the romantic film that he was watching before Changkyun arrived and hid it secretly again on the sofa, putting again the cushion in its place to cover it better.

The pianist had seen everything out of the corner of his eye, but he merely smiled discreetly while he continued to drink.

"It's okay, milk is fine," he murmured in response.

The brunette sighed in relief and they remained wrapped in a pleasant silence, interrupted only by the rain that hit the windows; listening to the storm outside was comforting.

"You put on your glasses," Hoseok commented in a soft voice. Changkyun looked at him sideways as he blew the surface of the smoky liquid, finding an expression that caused his heart to shrink with guilt.

His dark eyes watched him with a painful melancholy, silently expressing to him how much he had missed him, and his pink lips were curved into a sad little smile.

Why, after hurting him that much, Hoseok still smiled at him? How could he be so naive and not expect any explanation on his part? Why did he welcome him with open arms and didn’t get angry with him?

Changkyun tightened his lips and looked down, holding the cup tightly in his hands: the love he received from the older was overwhelming, and that was why he corresponded most of the time with feigned indifference, drawing an imaginary line between them.

He always tried not to get involved romantically with anyone, keeping his distance in an attempt to protect himself. That way, nobody would hurt him. And now that he cared about someone, he had tried to protect him at the cost of hurting him even more.

"I'm sorry..." Changkyun muttered almost inaudibly. Wonho didn’t say anything for a long time, until he took the cup from between his numb fingers and placed it on the table; he wrapped his small right hand between his larger ones and caressed it delicately. “I'm so sorry…" he repeated, choking on his own words.

The brunette put an arm around his shoulders, supporting Changkyun's head on his chest while holding his hand. The pianist felt a tremendous desire to cry again, he was terrified that Wonho had got tired of giving so much and receiving so little in return. And the fact that he was happy with the little he gave him hurt too much, it tore him apart.

The warmth of Wonho's body and his familiar scent gave him enough confidence to open up to him and, without being able to control it, all the worries that had gnawed at him in the last weeks and the pain he had brought alone during his high school years came out of his heart, manifesting them in the form of words.

He told him the story of how he wanted to change schools after his awful first year, how to go to school every day had become hell, and how he had no one to talk to. Changkyun didn’t want to tell anyone either, not even his parents; he had isolated himself from the world around him. He was too tired to explain it to anyone, and he was sure that no one was going to make the effort to understand him.

Wonho listened to him silently, hugging him tightly, giving him a gentle kiss on the head from time to time.

"It’s okay," Hoseok whispered against his hair when Changkyun fell silent. “I'm here, I'm with you..." he repeated again and again until the little boy calmed down and his muscles relaxed.

The outdoor storm subsided as time passed, and the dark haired boy straightened slightly so he could look at Wonho, rubbing his tired eyes from under his glasses: his warm embrace had had some kind of somnolent effect.

Hoseok looked at him gratefully for trusting him and telling him about his problems, but the two of them knew that there was still an unresolved issue and that both were afraid to bring to the conversation.

“What happened to you these last two weeks?”

Changkyun tightened his lips and looked away momentarily to gather enough courage and face those angelic eyes that watched him with so much pain.

"I... I was afraid," he revealed in a weak voice.

“Of what?”

"That they would hurt you," he answered with more confidence. Wonho frowned without understanding the reason for his elusive behavior; but he didn’t have time to object, since Changkyun climbed into his lap and looked at him with extreme seriousness. “I wanted to protect you.”

“Protect me?” he repeated, increasingly confused. He was supposed to be the one to protect him, and not the other way around. “Changkyun, what do you mea-?”

He couldn’t keep talking since the dark haired boy placed his hands on his chest and gave him a quick and clumsy kiss on the lips. The determination in his eyes and the blush on his cheeks for what he had just done caused Wonho to forget what he was about to ask.

“I... I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

The shy confession hypnotized Hoseok, who narrowed his eyes softly and watched him while gulping. He rested his hands on Changkyun’s sides and pressed him against him, sliding them down little by little.

His fingers slipped inside the ripped holes of Changkyun’s jeans and touched his warm skin, making him tremble. He stroked his nose with his and brushed his full lips against the thinner ones without breaking eye contact.

“I'm the one who should protect you...” he murmured against his mouth before giving him a lazy kiss. He rejoined their lips in short and slow kisses, giving him slight bites and caressing the lower part of his back.

Changkyun had closed his eyes and was squeezing Wonho's cardigan tightly, enjoying the feeling he had missed so much. When their tongues met, the youngest couldn’t suppress a loud moan that separated them; the brunette looked at him amused and began to give him quick pecks on his cheeks and lips holding a smile.

"Stop," Changkyun complained with little conviction, tremendously ashamed of the sound he had made. But Wonho didn’t pay attention to him and continued to give him kisses until the pianist covered his mouth with both hands.

By the half-moon shape of Hoseok's eyes, he knew he was smiling.

“Changkyunnie...” the eldest called; his breath tickled his fingers, but even so Changkyun didn’t remove them from his mouth, "you look so cute with those clothes," he commented casually, with the intention of teasing him.

"I'm not cute," he argued annoyed.

“Yes you are.”

“I said I’m not…”

After muttering that answer, they contemplated themselves in silence and their pulses inevitably went off. Wonho's warm breath on his hands bristled all over his skin and he pushed his fingers away just to be able to caress his pink lips with delicacy.

His exploration went through his cheeks to stop on his cute ears. He traced the edge of his earrings with his fingertips; in the eyes of Wonho, he was being the adorable, curious little puppy who had played with his piercings in his car the night they went out to dinner and he got drunk.

He took his small and soft hands in his and kissed them only to later join their mouths in a kiss hungrier than the last ones. They were both in need of warmth, the time they were separated, without hugging or kissing, had affected them too much.

Wonho again caressed the younger's tongue with his, and this time Changkyun didn’t hold back, sighing his name as he melted into him. What the little boy needed most was to forget everything and feel that Hoseok was next to him.

In the few seconds they separated to catch their breaths, Wonho took the opportunity to slide his glasses through his pretty nose and set them aside, catching his lips again, first in a torturously slow kiss, and then with more speed and anxiety. He loved being the one who took off his glasses, leaving him vulnerable and exposed to him.

Dexterously, Wonho grabbed him and lifted him off the couch while kissing him; Changkyun wrapped his legs around his waist and hugged his neck, opening his mouth for him and enjoying the warmth and moisture of his lips.

A few seconds later, Changkyun was lying on the bed, with Hoseok on top of his body and placed between his legs. The slight taste of soju that his pink tongue left over his mouth was intoxicating: his spring scent and the strange mixture of alcohol and ice cream were the perfect combination to make him forget all his problems, taking him to a world where it was just the two of them, alone and happy.

Wonho stood up with a ragged breath to take off his cardigan and shirt, exposing his pale and muscular torso. That vision dried Changkyun's mouth, and he felt his heart pop out of his chest.

The older one realized this, and didn’t hesitate to make slow, circular movements with his hips, biting his lip and enjoying seeing Changkyun's reaction. The dark haired boys closed his eyes tightly: the tingling and hotness of his lower belly became so strong that he had to cover his mouth to avoid moaning.

"Don’t hide..." whispered Wonho, bending over him again, slowing the friction between his crotches and giving him a soft little peck on his hands. He gently removed them so that he could leave a trail of kisses from his lips to his ear, "I want to hear your moans," he added in a low voice, talking in his ear.

An electric current ran down Changkyun's spine when he bit his earlobe and let out a whimper; Wonho continued to kiss the moles on his neck that he loved to taste and bite, and after taking off Changkyun’s sweatshirt, he continued on his thin, soft torso. At that point, the puppy had become a moaning mess, tangling his fingers on Wonho’s soft hair, too aware of the wetness and hotness of his crotch, desperately wanting to be touched more.

Changkyun threw his head back and mumbled his boyfriend's name in a trembling voice, too embarrassed to look down and make eye contact with the owner of the mouth who was now leaving moist kisses on his belly. He felt like a fire was born inside of him, and the more he brushed his crotch with Wonho’s, it became hotter and hotter, but he didn’t care to get burned.

Their bodies couldn’t be more different, but maybe, and just maybe, that's why they fit so well.

When he noticed that Wonho was unbuttoning his pants, he let out a strangled cry that alarmed him.

“What’s wrong?” he inquired worried, looking him in the eye. Changkyun stared at his beautiful features, slightly illuminated by the timid light that the gray clouds outside allowed to enter the bedroom: his lips were swollen and his dark eyes were peering with concern. With doubt, he raised his inexpert and trembling hand and laid it on Wonho's pale chest.

“I... I just wasn’t prepared.”

Changkyun could feel the frantic pulse of Wonho's heart through his fingers; even so, the latter gave him a calm and gentle smile that managed to reassure him a little.

"We'll go as far as you want," Hoseok said after a few seconds, stroking his cheek delicately with his thumb.

How far did he want to go? That was something Changkyun himself didn’t even know. He was very scared, he never had sex with anyone, and having his first time was something that frightened him. What if, because of having no experience, Wonho didn’t like it? What if it hurt too much? What if…?

He didn’t have time to continue overthinking everything because the sweet kiss that Hoseok left on his lips and the understanding with which he was watching him made him forget all those thoughts.

_Ah... I really love him._

Slowly, a shy smile crossed Changkyun's lips and he lifted his neck to give him a small, meaningful kiss. Wonho smiled at him in response, understanding what he had just expressed in silence.

Changkyun had understood that, as long as it was with Wonho, he would never be afraid again. He wanted to give him his whole heart. Maybe, by doing this, he would be exposing himself to be hurt by him, to feel even more pain than all those people had caused him during his high school years.

But he didn’t care anymore.

That night, Wonho made him change. His screams and moans, the marks of kisses on his body and the indescribable pain and pleasure he felt was something he would never forget.

Shin Hoseok would always be the boy who took his first kiss, his first time, and who had become his first love.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Some annoying rays of light hit Wonho's face and made him open his eyes. Feeling so sleepy, he was able to see a thick black hair tickling his neck, and he realized that he was hugging Changkyun's small body from behind.

A wide smile decorated his lips as he remembered the night before and he snuggled against him, hugging him tighter and inhaling the sweet smell of shampoo that gave off his hair.

The soft moans that came out of Changkyun’s mouth and how he had clung to his body, begging him for more and screaming his name, was etched into his memory.

When Wonho liked a person, that attraction used to fade after sex. But with Changkyun it was different, his feelings for him went much further than a simple whim or a temporary attraction.

He wanted to be with him, hug him and take care of him.

Suddenly, the dark haired boy moved in his arms and turned towards him, revealing the pout he was doing while he was sleeping soundly.

Hoseok giggled and brushed a few strands from his forehead tenderly; his heart was filled with a warm feeling, and that was when he knew that what he most wanted was to wake up with Changkyun every day, for the rest of his life.

_Ah... I really love him._

That thought got stuck in his mind, and settled into his heart, accepting that it was already a fact that he was irremediably in love with the adorable boy in glasses, and that he couldn’t be without him. Changkyun had become his most precious treasure.

He didn’t know how long he remained watching his peaceful dream, but the vibration of his cell phone took him out of his reverie. He moved carefully away from Changkyun so as not to wake him up and turned on the mattress to pick up the device that rested on the bedside table next to two photo frames. He looked at the screen and saw that it was seven in the morning and that Hyungwon was calling him.

_Why is he calling at this hour?_

He rubbed his tired eyes to wake up completely and finally slid the green key to answer.

“Hello?” Wonho said with a husky voice, tinged with worry.

“Wonho, we have to talk.”

His seriousness made his whole body tense and Hoseok took a seat on the edge of the bed.

“What’s the matter?” he asked fearfully. It didn’t look like good news, and the fact that Hyungwon took a few seconds to answer didn’t help calm his nerves.

“I'm in the park that’s in front of your apartment. Minhyuk is with me.”

“Minhyuk?” he repeated confused.

“Come here, we're waiting for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi my dears! As promised, here's the sweet wonkyun moment <333 hope you enjoyed this, wonkyun finally took the step!!! and wahhh there's only two chapters left!! In next one, there will be some revelations (I'm sorry, but in this fic Minhyuk is the hateful character :(() we'll see soon in a few days, kisses and hugs! <33


	21. Changes

Even though it had already dawned, the climate was very cold and Wonho put on his gray cardigan over a tank top before going down to the park where they were waiting for him.

Nerves were consuming him: he had no idea what his two friends would want at that hour in the morning, but it must have been important if they had gone there to speak in person.

The flip-flops he wore clattered against the asphalt and didn’t protect him from the remains of the rain that covered the lawn that surrounded the park, so he soaked his feet and the bottom of his sweatpants. However, that was the last of his worries.

He spotted Minhyuk sitting on the seat of the old swing, and Hyungwon on a wooden bench a few yards away from the redhead, with his back to Hoseok.

The brunette approached cautiously towards Hyungwon and stood beside him. The taller one kept his gaze fixed on the slide whose red paint was beginning to peel off; he had noticed Wonho's presence, but he was too focused on his thoughts to greet him. The seriousness of his expression only served to frighten Hoseok even more, and he squeezed his fists covered in cold sweat before speaking.

“What... what’s the matter? Why are you guys here?”

He only received a sigh in response; the dark haired boy turned his tired eyes towards Minhyuk and raised an arm covered by a black sweatshirt to rub his frown in an attempt to calm his headache.

“Go talk to him.” Wonho opened his mouth with the intention of asking him what the hell was happening, but Hyungwon interrupted him, finally looking him in the eyes. “He has something to tell you.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds until Hoseok slowly turned his neck towards Minhyuk. The cold air poured down his nostrils, coming out in a vaporous form from his mouth, and the sun peeping from the distant buildings momentarily blinded him: Minhyuk rocked slightly on the swing without taking his eyes off his feet, and the morning light made his hair shine more than ever.

With a sigh, Wonho began to approach his friend with whom so many experiences he had lived in his college years and with which he had made funny memories that he would never forget. Minhyuk always smiled and made him laugh, but when he stopped in front of him and noticed his expression, he knew something was not right.

He had a feeling that, from that day, their friendship would never be the same again.

At last, Minhyuk seemed to notice his presence and raised his haggard eyes to him; he gave him a smile that was quickly erased, as if he felt guilty for smiling at him. He lowered his face again and bit his lip, clinging tightly to the chains of the swing.

"Hi," Wonho said with a small smile, taking a seat on the swing next to him.

“Hi...” responded the redhead with a muted tone of voice. After the murmur, no other word came out of his mouth.

“What's wrong? Where’s the Minhyuk that talks the hind legs off a donkey?” Wonho teased, hoping to break the silence that had settled between them and that was beginning to drown him. The bitter laughter he received in return worried him even more. “Hey... what do you have to tell me?” he asked at last, trying to hide his nervousness and praying that nothing bad had happened.

Minhyuk looked up at the orange sky before deciding to speak.

"Promise me you won’t be mad at me," he said without looking at him. His voice had trembled at the request, and his knuckles turned white from the strength with which he clung to the swing. “Promise me... you won’t stop being my friend.”

Wonho's entire body tensed and he frowned, trying to find a clue in Minhyuk's face that told him where he wanted to go with all that. But nothing.

“I promise.”

Wonho thought that whatever he had done, no matter how bad it was, it wouldn’t hurt their friendship. However, his heart twisted at the possibility of not being able to keep his promise: what could he have done to make him promise that he would still be his friend after telling him?

His answer reassured Minhyuk a little, who smiled slightly before letting out a shaky breath.

"I... did some things," he confessed, not daring to make eye contact. “This morning I called Hyungwon, I needed to tell someone about it, but... he said I had to tell you. He said it would be worse if I kept quiet and that... I would lose you," he went on agitatedly. His eyes were red with tears and he was tremendously ashamed before him.

“What did you do?” Wonho asked, almost afraid to know the answer. When Minhyuk finally looked into his eyes, he knew that what he had really done was something so serious that it could even endanger their friendship.

“Do you remember TaeHa?”

“TaeHa?” Hoseok repeated confused: that name was kind of familiar. Suddenly, he remembered who he was talking about. “You mean Hyungwon’s ex-girlfriend?”

"Yeah..." Minhyuk said with a certain melancholy. Hyungwon had started dating TaeHa in their college’s second year; she was a very reserved girl, a bit strange in Hoseok's eyes, but for his best friend she was perfect. They never separated and they did everything together, it was something worth admiring. Even Jooheon once commented that if they continued like that, they would end up merging into one person.

Minhyuk was convinced that the couple wouldn’t last, he repeated it every week between jokes and laughter. But a year passed, and their relationship was still as strong as the first week.

“What's up with her?” Wonho asked, not understanding what TaeHa had to do with the whole thing.

“I hated her.” The simplicity with which he said that surprised Hoseok. Although the redhead had a smile on his lips, his words were full of bitterness.

“But why? She was a good girl, she-”

"Because of her, he left us aside, Wonho," Minhyuk interrupted him, looking into his eyes. “He left his friends... for a girl," he concluded in a trembling voice, turning his neck to Hyungwon, who was watching him from the bench with wide eyes: from his stunned expression, it was obvious that he didn’t know that part of the story. “I had to do something, I was afraid that he’d forget about his friends..." he went on agitated, looking again at the brunette.

Wonho began to understand everything and his heart stirred with anguish. Hyungwon and TaeHa had broken up from one day to the next; the only explanation that his best friend gave them about it was that, apparently, she had found another boy she liked best. TaeHa changed her university and they didn’t hear anything from her again.

Did Minhyuk... have something to do with their separation?

"You..." Hoseok murmured at the horrible thought that had crossed his mind.

"I got her to leave, thanks to that we were able to be together again," Minhyuk insisted, as if what he had done had been for the good of all. Wonho couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and turned his gaze to Hyungwon, who was clenching his fists and refusing to look up from his knees. “Everything was going fine again... and then Changkyun arrived.”

The mere mention of his name was enough to make Hoseok's body tense. His guts stirred, his heart rose to his throat and his face froze at the words that came out of Minhyuk's mouth below.

“I was afraid again.”

_No._

“Being you, I thought I wouldn’t have anything to worry about...”

_Don’t…_

“But you were still together. And I... I had to do something.”

The fear was evident in Minhyuk's voice, and he didn’t dare to face him as he spoke; he played with his hands, his eyes were red and his whole body trembled, but Wonho didn’t pay attention to him.

The only thing he could think about was Changkyun: just imagining the suffering he must have been through all alone tore him apart. And he had been completely oblivious to all that situation.

He had no idea what Minhyuk had done to him, and he felt a tremendous desire to hit him and scream at him. And yet, he didn’t have strength for any of those options. Minhyuk was like his brother, a good person, someone who always helped others. He just couldn’t believe that he... God.

“Why?” Wonho muttered with suppressed rage.

Minhyuk raised his head and, with a fearful movement, raised his hand to touch his arm, clinging to his cardigan almost desperately.

"Please... don’t hate me," he pleaded with a thin voice. Wonho breathed deeply and blinked numerous times in an attempt to get rid of the stinging of his eyes, wondering how they had come to this painful situation. Without saying a word and without even looking at him, he withdrew the hand with which he held his jacket languidly. Minhyuk dropped his arm on his own lap, trying to shallow in the best possible way the painful rejection.

Silence flooded them, and the only thing that was heard in the environment was the chirping of birds in the leafy trees of the park.

Wonho was right... their friendship would change from that day on.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard approaching them and they stopped right in front of Minhyuk. The redhead looked up and gasped when Hyungwon grabbed the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the swing.

“What did you do to TaeHa?” he asked without releasing the garment: his voice was strangely calm, denoting that he was really mad. Minhyuk swallowed and looked away, but returned to fix his gaze on Hyungwon when he shook him with little delicacy. “What the fuck did you do to her?!” he repeated, unable to hide his anger anymore. “Did you talk to your friends to threaten her, is that it? You did the same shit you did with Changkyun, huh?”

That was enough for tears to overflow from Minhyuk's eyes; Hyungwon loosened his grip and tried to calm his breathing, but still didn’t let go.

"I- I'm sorry," Minhyuk whined as best he could. “I'm really sorry, I just- I didn’t want to…”

They watched each other for a few seconds until Hyungwon finally let him go with a cry of frustration, rubbing his forehead trying to calm down and, meanwhile, Minhyuk's legs wobbled, having to sit back on the swing to avoid falling to the ground.

"I'm sorry..." he muttered again, hugging himself. He didn’t dare look at Wonho, didn’t want to see the disappointment in his face. The brunette stared at nothing without knowing what to say or what to think: he had promised that he’d still be his friend no matter what... but that was too much. He had hurt his friends without thinking about the consequences of his actions, he had hurt his Changkyun...

"I think the one you owe a bigger apology to is Changkyun," Hyungwon said after a while, when he managed to calm down a bit. Minhyuk nodded weakly, wiping the tears with the back of his hand: his expression denoted guilt, and it wasn’t fake. With a sigh, Hyungwon turned around and started to walk away, but stopped immediately when he noticed the presence of someone else.

Changkyun was standing by the bench, wearing the clothes that Wonho had lent him the day before, his wide eyes hiding behind his glasses.

“Changkyun?” Hoseok muttered when he saw him too.

_Since when he was there?_

Then, Wonho got up from the swing and walked determinedly towards him; he dug his nails into his palms to suppress the need to run and embrace him with all his strength.

Once in front of him, he hesitated a few seconds what to do; the dark haired boy was staring at Minhyuk and, although his face was apparently calm, his entire body trembled. Wonho began to raise his fingers to caress his cheeks and get him to look at him, but Changkyun stepped away and walked towards the swings, also avoiding Hyungwon in the process.

He slowed his steps to stop completely, being right in front of Minhyuk, the person who had relived his horrible days of high school. The redhead had a hard time watching Changkyun more than two seconds in the face without crying again.

“Changkyun... I- I'm sorry,” he said haltingly, “I know you may think I'm not being serious, but I'm really sorry.” The pianist listened in silence to his apologies and studied his face in search of sincerity or lies behind his words. The scrutiny made Minhyuk nervous, because the blankness he faced gave him no clue about Changkyun's emotions: was he angry? was he sad?... did he hate him? “I don’t expect you to forgive me," he went on agitatedly, "but I just want you to know-”

“No.”

Changkyun's sudden response surprised everyone. Time passed and the only one who reacted was Wonho, who approached the little boy with great care and rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Changkyun...”

The black haired boy ignored him and clenched his fists, making a tremendous effort to keep looking at Minhyuk; he breathed deeply and finally continued talking.

“I can’t forgive you.”

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

On that September day, the sky was clear. Changkyun stopped walking momentarily in order to inspire the fresh air and observe the clouds that were flying away, giving the leading role to the shining sun of the morning.

It was hot.

For the first time in a long time, the little boy stripped off his big, old brown jacket and let his thin arms -only covered by a loose black T-shirt- see the light of day. He tied the garment to his waist and, after letting out a long sigh, he pressed his briefcase against his chest and continued his way across the campus.

Suddenly, he noticed that a large hand was ruffling his hair and he couldn’t hide his smile as he turned and saw that it was Hyunwoo. He was dressed in his usual sports clothes and looked at him with an affable smile: judging by his tired appearance and the aroma of post-workout shampoo that his wet hair gave off, he must have come from the showers of the stadium.

“What kind of greeting is that?” Changkyun complained as he ran his fingers through his hair, walking beside his big friend. Hyunwoo just smiled at him before speaking.

“How come you’re early again? As far as I know, you don’t have classes until later.”

Changkyun shrugged.

"I have to practice for my recital next week," he explained, waving his folder full of sheet music in the air. Hyunwoo nodded thoughtfully and, ignoring again the complaints of the shorter, returned to ruffle his hair with little delicacy.

When he finally managed to get away from the big boy's hands laughing, they continued their way talking about trivial issues, which included the number of sit-ups that Hyunwoo had done in the training. Suddenly, Changkyun noticed someone's arm around him and turned to his left.

"Good morning," Kihyun greeted him with a too-broad smile: he seemed too happy, and that wasn’t a good sign.

"Hey..." Changkyun started to say a little surprised, slowing his pace until he stopped. "Didn’t you say you had to go buy something before coming to class?" he asked, remembering how the pink haired boy had left the residence almost running, proclaiming that he needed to buy something in the supermarket.

"Oh, of course I bought it," he answered with a sly expression. Then, he took his backpack off his shoulders and opened it, showing the contents to his two friends. Changkyun frowned when he saw that there were several boxes of eggs inside.

“What are you going to do with that?” Hyunwoo asked crossing his arms.

"I'm just going to impart some divine justice," he explained resolutely, closing the backpack again.

Changkyun was speechless and, before he could say anything, his roommate left them behind, whistling a song with enthusiasm.

Hyunwoo sighed and shook his head, unaware of what his friend had in mind, and too tired to try to find out. But Changkyun did know what he planned to do, and it wasn’t a good idea.

With a hurried goodbye, the dark haired one left Hyunwoo almost running and followed Kihyun, who had already entered the faculty with the intention of starting up his evil plans.

His idea of 'divine justice' was throwing eggs at the fourth year people who had done the same to him more than a month ago; it had been inevitable that Kihyun and Hyunwoo find out what happened, as Hyungwon himself told them everything. However, he omitted the fact that Minhyuk had been behind everything. Of course, the pink haired felt that a week of expulsion and Wonho’s threats to stay away from him hadn’t been enough punishment for these people and had planned his own revenge.

As much as Changkyun resented them, throwing eggs at them was too much.

He climbed the stairs in a hurry and stopped in the middle of the corridor of the first-year classrooms, breathing hard and looking everywhere. However, when he heard screams coming from the upper floors, he knew it was too late.

“Eat this, you assholes! Let’s see if… Hey! Don’t run away!” Kihyun's screamed before chasing the people along the corridors.

A long sigh escaped from between Changkyun's thin lips and he collapsed on one of the benches in the hall, laying aside his briefcase and resting his head on the white, rough wall. He noticed the students who passed him, and he couldn’t help but feel relieved: nobody looked at him or pointed at him anymore, and nobody spoke behind his back.

Everything came back to normal again.

Now, practically the whole campus knew that Wonho, the most popular and handsome guy in college, dated the huge-glassed, little first-year boy. It looked like the plot of a romantic cliché novel for teenagers.

Changkyun smiled at that thought and wondered what Hoseok was doing; it was Thursday, he would probably be in the health and maternity club. Maybe after school he could go find a gift for him: after all, they would soon be celebrating a hundred days together.

A coughing at his side made him leave his reverie and turned his gaze towards Minhyuk, who looked at him with a smile that made him tense.

"Hello," he greeted shyly. The redhead used to be very cheerful, but since what happened a month ago, he was in very low spirits. Wonho, Hyungwon and Jooheon had stopped spending so much time with him, only the necessary, and that made him feel very bad.

The one who should feel guilty was Minhyuk and not him, but he couldn’t help it: being the cause of separation from a group of friends wasn’t pleasant at all.

“How are you?” the older boy asked, playing with his hands when he saw that Changkyun had no intention of greeting him.

"I’m fine, I guess," he replied with a shrug. He felt very uncomfortable in that situation: Minhyuk had already tried several times to approach him friendly, and on all occasions, Changkyun hadn’t yielded.

Minhyuk sat down next to him and, immediately, Changkyun looked away to the opposite side and picked up his briefcase, holding it tightly in his lap. The seconds passed, and neither of them said anything; There came a point at which Changkyun considered getting up and leaving the place..

“It’d be awesome... to hear you play one day.”

His sudden confession surprised Changkyun, who turned to him, watching inwardly as a smile formed on his lips.

Wonho's smile shone like the sun, but Minhyuk's could completely blind you. He had never noticed that it was so pretty.

Suddenly, he wanted to forgive him, wanted to give him a chance and try to be his friend. He wasn’t even angry with him, the only feeling that Minhyuk inspired him was pity. But it wasn’t that easy.

Changkyun tightened his lips and nodded; he felt that there was nothing else to say, only time would decide if a friendship would be possible between them. Someone was approaching them, and when they saw that it was Hyungwon, Minhyuk got up from the bench, looking at Changkyun with a guilty expression before leaving.

When their paths crossed, Hyungwon gave a warning look at the one who had been one of his best friends in the past and sat next to Changkyun with a mix of anger and sadness on his face.

He breathed in closing his eyes, staying quiet for a few seconds, until finally he turned to the little boy, with one of his sleepy smiles decorating his lips.

“What’s up, Changkyunnie? Did you sleep well?”

"Yeah..." he said, feeling how his body had relaxed after the encounter with Minhyuk, "but I see that you didn’t," he went on with a smile as Hyungwon stuck a long yawn.

"Not enough, that's for sure," he replied rubbing one eye wearily. Changkyun wondered how many hours Hyungwon could sleep if they let him. “So... how’s everything with Wonho?” he asked, leaning back, watching him with great interest. “Do you have something planned?”

“Planned?” Changkyun repeated confused.

"You know, for your hundred-day anniversary," Hyungwon said, as if it was obvious. Changkyun opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted. “You don’t have to ask me why I know about it, Wonho didn’t stop talking about the same thing since last week. I think he has prepared a surprise for you," he added with a mischievous smile.

_Wonho has prepared something for me? But I... I still don’t know what to give him. I haven’t prepared anything..._

The panic must have been obvious on his face, since Hyungwon giggled and patted his shoulder.

“You haven’t prepared anything, right?”

Feeling very embarrassed, Changkyun shook his head weakly and gained a sigh in reply.

“But…!” said the pianist a little more altered. “I... wanted to give him something," he continued, lowering his voice, playing with the rings of his folder.

“Need some help?” Hyungwon asked crossing his arms.

"No..." Changkyun murmured without looking directly at him; the older boy raised an eyebrow without believing him. “Well, maybe…”

Hyungwon rubbed his chin, exaggerating his thoughtful gesture; his eyes fell on Changkyun's clothes, analyzing him up and down. Suddenly, a smile appeared on his full lips when an idea crossed his mind.

"I think… there’s something that might work,” he muttered without losing his smile. Changkyun cringed on the spot when his friend caught one of the sleeves of his old brown jacket -which he still wore around his waist- between his thin fingers. “But we'll have to make some changes.”

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

"I- I don’t know if I can do it," Changkyun complained, leaning back against the wall behind which he and Hyungwon were hiding.

"Yes, you can," replied the taller one, peeking around the corner and checking that Wonho hadn’t left his club's classroom yet. Changkyun sighed and closed his eyes, trying to calm down; he raised a hand to his face to rub it, but Hyungwon hurried to grab it to avoid it. “Don’t even think about it, you'll ruin all my work.”

Changkyun clicked his tongue in annoyance, remembering the hours he had spent in the bathroom of the residence in which Hyungwon lived to put the damn makeup on. He would never have imagined how hard it was to put on the eyeliner.

He was wearing a product on his hair that made the black strands of his fringe fall gracefully on his forehead, a little wavy and messy. In Hyungwon's words, it gave him a casual look. And his clothes... were completely opposite to his usual style: he wore a leather jacket decorated with patches that they had bought yesterday, and the black jeans were so tight that it was probably that, if he were to crouch, they would rip off on a little appropriate spot. Some beige boots, whose laces were clumsily tied, finished off the complex.

“Are you sure... that Wonho will like it?” Changkyun asked hesitantly.

"A hundred percent sure, we've been preparing for a week," Hyungwon said. Although he still wasn’t entirely convinced, the sound of a door opening and the voices of the club members echoing in the hallway caused his heart to beat nervously and look at the tallest without knowing what to do.

"Finally," Hyungwon sighed impatiently. “Okay, if you do what I've taught you, everything will go smoothly," he said, placing his hands on his shoulders. Then, he pushed him out of their hiding place and gestured with his mouth 'fighting'.

Changkyun stood paralyzed in the middle of the corridor, watching the girls in the health and maternity club scan him as they passed by. His cheeks began to overheat because of the intensity with which he was being observed, even some girls stopped and began to whisper and giggle among themselves.

“Remember what I’ve taught you!” Hyungwon shouted in whispers, peeping from the corner of the wall.

Changkyun swallowed and, wiping the sweat from his hands on his trousers, he lifted his chin and started walking as Hyungwon had taught him. With confident steps and with one hand tucked in the back pocket of his jeans, he walked through the girls to go to the door with the paper star stuck on its surface.

Inside he was a bundle of nerves, but he managed to appear calm and self-confident as he approached his target.

Wonho stood at the door with his back to him, saying goodbye as always to the coordinator and wearing his green fluorescent apron tied on his back. The woman first saw Changkyun and stayed a few seconds spellbound watching him approach. Coughing, she patted Hoseok on the cheek and left, but not before glancing at the first-year boy whose change of look made him look like a completely different person.

Changkyun leaned on the wall with his arms crossed just behind Wonho; when the brunette turned around and finally saw him, he gasped startled, putting a hand on his heart.

“Ah, Changkyun, you scared me...”

His voice faded as soon as he realized the panorama before him and his eyes widened enormously. The black haired boy tried to hide his nervousness and ran a hand through his hair, licking his parched lips.

“What’s up…?” he greeted, dragging the words in the deepest voice he could. Wonho didn’t say anything, just stared at him with wide eyes. Changkyun panicked a little and blurted out the first thing that crossed his mind to complete the sentence, “…bro?”

At that, Changkyun face palmed his inner self for addressing him like he did with Jooheon. _He’s your boyfriend, not your bro, you dumbass_ ,he told himself, squeezing his eyes shut, and recovering his full of confidence pose.

"Chang... Changkyunnie," Wonho stammered in surprise. “What…?”

Changkyun noticed that Wonho's cheeks were beginning to flush and, why would he lie, that suited his self-esteem.

“Are you free?” he asked with more confidence, tilting his head slightly.

“Free…?” Hoseok repeated, still watching him self-absorbed. Changkyun nodded and the older boy reached into his apron pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “Ah... wait, I have to check one thing.”

He tried to suppress a smile as he waited for Wonho to finish looking at his phone; he couldn’t believe it, Hyungwon's tactic was working. Now he just had to propose to him to go on a date and the plan would have been a success.

However, the sound of a camera made him raise his head surprised towards the source of the sound.

Hoseok held his mobile very close to his face, and had a smile from ear to ear. Still looking at the picture he had just taken, the brunette put a hand to his own cheek and bit his lip.

“How cute... Changkyunnie trying to look more mature.”

The little boy was speechless: he could feel all the blood in his body rise to his head, causing his cheeks to burn. Was he making fun of him?

"I need to put this photo in my room," Wonho continued. “No! I have to put it in MoMo Coffee so that everyone can see how adorable you are.”

"I- I'm not cute..." he managed to say with difficulty, clenching his fists hard.

"Oh, of course you are," he said in a childish voice, as if he were talking to a small child. That made him even more upset.

“I said I’m not!” he insisted, kicking the floor.

“Oh, stop! You're too cute!” Wonho exclaimed before wrapping him in a hug and swinging him in his arms in an exaggerated way.

Changkyun tried to get away from him, but Hoseok's arms were too strong and he couldn’t escape from the grip. He began to be breathless and continued to complain, being completely ignored by the smiling boy.

Hyungwon watched everything from a distance and smiled when Wonho stopped hugging him to stroke his cheeks. Changkyun pouted and, after exchanging a few words, they melted into a sweet kiss.

It was then that Hyungwon turned around with a sigh and left, leaving the happy couple behind.

Those two still had a long way to go. And he was almost sure, no, he was completely sure that as many difficulties and problems they had to face, they would carry on, together.

His stupid best friend had been very lucky and probably had found the person with whom he would share the rest of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy I'm back!! So, Minhyuk's intentions have been explained, and I'm sorry again for making him the bad character, but at least he feels sorry about it :'(( well, hope you have enjoyed this chapter, next one will be the end of this series!! it's already translated, and it was so weird to write "the end", I wasn't supposed to feel sad over it since I writted it a while ago, but I couldn't help it sigh...
> 
> Anyways, thanks so much for the support and the loving comments :))) We'll see in two days! Lots of hugs and kisses <33
> 
> (btw, the final part of the chapter was lowkey inspired by David Bowie's song "changes", check it out if you want <33)


	22. Special goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I wrote this, I listened to some good oldies like "I love you baby" by Frank Sinatra and "Can't help falling in love" by Elvis, feel free to check them out if you want to get the feels I got while writing this (plus it's almost christmas and those romantic songs suit the mood quite well, enjoy <333)

**Two years and five months later**

The steps of the entrance of the faculty were a bit slippery because of the frost of the last days, so Minhyuk had to hold on to the handrail to avoid falling down.

His teeth chattered in the cold of February; he rubbed his arms covered by a green coat so he could warm up himself a little bit before entering the building. The aroma that greeted him was the coffee that the cafeteria gave off on the left and, inspiring the pleasant smell, he smiled broadly and walked through the corridors of the first year.

His eyes fell on the different doors and on the ex-students who, like him, had come on the last day of that school year to talk with the teachers, to meet their ex-companions, or simply to remember old times.

When he climbed the stairs and went to visit the fourth-year classrooms, some voices arguing in the corridor caught his attention; he stopped walking and listened to them from the corner of the wall, unable to avoid chuckling when he recognized them.

“How many times do I have to repeat it to you?” Kihyun said in a slightly annoyed tone, “Mr. Choi was the best economics’ teacher.”

"Yeah, well, he only passed the typical bookworms who went to all his boring classes," Hyungwon contradicted, “Oh sorry, you’re one of those bookworms, I forgot.”

“I'm not a bookworm! I just think that getting good grades is primordial for... hey!”

The scream caught Minhyuk's attention, who peeked out to see what was happening: Hyungwon was pinching Kihyun's cheek with a huge smile while the shorter one pushed his hand away in annoyance. He never got used to the fact that the hair of Changkyun's friend was no longer of that striking pink color, but a dark brown, almost black; it was probably his natural color.

“Why are you still a shorty?” Hyungwon asked in an attempt to annoy him, but his loving glance gave him away.

“Why are you still an annoying giant?” Kihyun countered, rubbing his cheek.

“I'm not an annoying giant, I'm just telling the truth. Your sad reality is that you didn’t drink enough milk as a child.” Kihyun sighed, looking down; his face showed sadness and Hyungwon realized that his jokes had offended him. “Kihyun?”

The brunette continued without looking up, and the slender boy put a hand on his shoulder, beginning to worry.

“Hey, I was just jokin-”

"At least, my lack of height is compensated by your lack of brain," Kihyun proclaimed, raising his chin with haughtiness. Then he snorted and went down the hall, leaving Hyungwon behind.

Minhyuk sighed shaking his head and finally came out of his hiding place, approaching the boy who now ruffled his hair in frustration.

"It didn’t go as planned, right?” he commented already being at his side. Hyungwon gave him a sidelong glance and leaned against the wall next to his old classroom.

"You'll never stop being a busybody," he answered, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he found a big smile on Minhyuk's lips and he couldn’t help but smile too: his friend had a very contagious smile.

“Shouldn’t you follow him?” Minhyuk proposed, standing beside him on the wall.

"No," Hyungwon murmured, looking straight ahead, "it would only make things worse.

"Right..." muttered the redhead, pursing his lips thoughtfully. Both remained silent for a while, until Minhyuk couldn’t take it anymore and asked what he had been suspecting for some while ago. “When will you tell him that you like him?”

Hyungwon widened his eyes, totally shocked for the question he had just raised. Minhyuk watched him with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile, and giggled when his friend turned away his embarrassed face.

“I- I don’t like-”

"Sure, and I'm the president of Korea," he replied with obvious sarcasm.

"Look, it's..." Hyungwon tried to explain. "It's complicated.”

“And because it's complicated you're not going to do anything?” Minhyuk insisted, crossing his arms, standing in front of him. He was determined to make his friend fight for the person he liked. “If you don’t do something now, the years will pass and you’ll find yourself alone in your apartment, surrounded by cats.”

Hyungwon smiled faintly with a weary expression. “I would be surrounded by puppies, in that case," he said, putting his hands in the pockets of his long blue coat. Minhyuk rolled his eyes and lightly shook his arm, pouting.

“What do you have to lose?”

The dark haired boy lowered his eyes and, although a smile was drawn on his thick lips, his expression denoted melancholy.

"He’s not into boys," he replied simply.

Minhyuk's face froze and released his arm. The silence was present, being heavier as the seconds passed.

“How come you’re so sure?” he asked as delicately as he could, being aware that it was a thorny issue.

"I just know," said Hyungwon, shrugging. “Believe me, I've known Kihyun for years. He’s just... not interested,” he explained when he saw the disappointed face of his friend.

“So what? You've also known me for years, and I don’t think you're sure that-”

“That you’re gay? I think I knew that from the first day I met you.”

Minhyuk was momentarily speechless.

“Okay, I may not be the best example.”

Hyungwon chuckled and shook his head.

"You're a pain in the ass," he said, beginning to walk down the corridor, followed by the redhead. Minhyuk took his arm with a big smile.

“I am, that's why you love me so much.”

Those words came out of his lips naturally, but inside he knew they would have been risky to pronounce some time ago. The forgiveness of Hyungwon and the others wasn’t easy to achieve, and each time the memory of that cold morning in the park in front of Hoseok's apartment assaulted them, a wound they thought had been closed was reopened.

The bitterness of that day was still present in their lives, and it was impossible to erase it completely. Minhyuk did what he did, he accepted it, and the others eventually forgave him, because there was no point in holding on to the past, to a painful memory. They decided to give him a second chance, to start over, creating a new friendship.

Time helped to sweeten that bitter memory and, gradually, everyone managed to leave it behind, including Changkyun. And that was one of the many reasons why Minhyuk was tremendously grateful to him.

They continued walking through the different floors of the faculty, passing in front of their old classrooms, remembering funny anecdotes, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. When they spotted the now fourth-year boy next to Jooheon looking at a bulletin board on the floor below, Minhyuk couldn’t help smiling and calling with him with enthusiasm.

“Changkyun!” Immediately, the redhead went down the stairs with exaggerated little jumps and surrounded him by the shoulders. Changkyun looked at him with a smile and allowed himself to be embraced by him: he was already used to his expressions of affection and knew him, so there was no point in trying to get away from him because then he would cling more strongly. “Did you miss me?”

"Hyung... we saw each other two days ago," sighed Changkyun, remembering how all his friends had gone to see his latest piano recital. Before he started playing, Hoseok had made a heart shape with his arms as usual, Minhyuk shouted and encouraged him too outrageously with Jooheon and Kihyun scolded them to keep quiet. Hyungwon gesticulated a 'fighting' with his mouth while Hyunwoo only nodded as he lifted his thumb up.

Without a doubt, they always made a scene in his recitals.

"You're going to strangle him," Jooheon warned as he watched the force with which he squeezed Changkyun.

"It's not true," Minhyuk countered with a pout, giving him a sulky look.

The dark haired boy laughed lightly at the small discussion; he turned his gaze back to the green board in front of him and his expression suddenly fell.

“What are you looking at?” Minhyuk asked curiously. He noticed that the paper that captured the minor's attention was the one that announced his piano recital. “Ah... come on, Changkyun, it's not like it was the last time you're playing the piano," he tried to cheer him up without much success. Hyungwon finally reached them and placed himself behind the little boy, resting his chin on his head and watching the bulletin board.

"You did great," Jooheon said at his side, showing his dimples and tapping his arm. Changkyun forced himself to smile, looking down at his hands that were practically covered by the sleeves of his huge black sweater.

"You should be proud," Hyungwon added.

“I am. I just... I think I'm going to miss this.”

“Miss what?” Minhyuk asked, resting his head on his shoulder.

"All of this," Changkyun murmured, looking around. The three understood what he was referring to and remained silent for a while; in the beginning, Changkyun thought that, when finishing the university, he would have more clear what he would want to do in the future and he would leave determined towards adulthood without looking back. But the reality is that those four years of his life only confused him more. Changkyun wanted to hold on to the moments lived during that time, to his friends, and he felt a huge fear of what was to come.

All that mixture of emotions left him scared of his uncertain future, melancholy, sad and at the same time exited to discover what life had in store for him. Maybe his choice to study at a music conservatory on a far-away city was the right thing to do, or maybe not.

He still had to find out.

“Come on, cheer up that face!” Minhyuk suddenly exclaimed, causing the little boy to startle. “Today is the last day of classes, we have to go out and celebrate tonight!”

Changkyun sighed with a smile and nodded. Taking a last look at the bulletin board, he said goodbye to his three friends and left for the auditorium, probably to see his beloved piano for the last time. Minhyuk thought that, knowing this strange boy, maybe he would start talking to the instrument to say goodbye properly to it.

Jooheon told them he would go to the back wall of the faculty to check the status of his 'works of art', or rather the graffiti he painted on that wall when he skipped classes. Hyungwon patted Minhyuk on the shoulder and excused himself; most likely he would have changed his mind and left to look for Kihyun.

Now he was alone, and a painful memory flooded his mind. He had insisted to Changkyun that he should be happy on his last day in college, but the truth is that the last emotion Minhyuk felt on his last day at the university was happiness. His friends were still resentful with him at that time, rejection and loneliness hurt that day more than any other.

Although they had come to talk to him as a courtesy, he could still see a hint of mistrust on them; that hatred was still present in their eyes, and it didn’t fade away. He wished with all his might to erase the damage he had done to his friends, but he simply couldn’t. Guilt and remorse haunted him even after all this time, it was inevitable, and he had already learned to live with it.

His memories led him to walk towards the exit of the building; when he opened the door, the frozen air hit his face and he hugged himself. He decided to take a seat on the same step of the entrance where he had sat on that painful day and closed his eyes.

He remembered how miserable he had felt... and also someone who sat next to him on the stairs and who spoke to him for the first time that day. That person was a mystery to him, his robotic face never gave him clues to his emotions, and the fact that he had tried to cheer him up without barely knowing him had awakened in him an enormous feeling of gratitude and tenderness. There might be something else, but those feelings were hidden in his heart.

Suddenly, he noticed someone sitting to his right on the cold, wet steps and opened his eyes. He found the same person who, almost three years ago, had comforted him more than he liked to admit with the simple question: 'Are you okay?'

Minhyuk waited for Hyunwoo to say something, and as that moment didn’t come, he hugged his knees and started talking without looking at him.

“Aren’t you cold?”

The tanned boy hesitated a few seconds, contemplating his own long-sleeved shirt, before answering.

“No.”

Minhyuk laughed softly, causing the mist to leave his mouth and get lost in the environment.

“I'm wearing a coat and I'm freezing my ass out here, and you aren't cold?” he asked amused, finally looking at him without losing the smile. Hyunwoo just shrugged. “What are you, a human heater?”

“...No.”

“You still don’t know any other word besides yes and no?”

Minhyuk raised the question with a slightly annoyed tone, but it wasn’t his intention. He was just frustrated: he had known Hyunwoo for a long time, had gone out with him and the rest of his friends on countless occasions, and even then that person always answered to everything with monosyllables. Even over time, he had come to understand the strange personality of Changkyun, and yet Hyunwoo remained being an enigma to him.

“I...”

"Forget it," Minhyuk cut him off with a sigh. “I'll resign myself to you continuing to treat me with that coldness of yours," he added with a theatricality, trying to lighten the mood. After that, they fell silent, watching the snowflakes begin to descend from the sky and perch on the sidewalk and stairs delicately.

“Are you okay?”

Minhyuk's heart jumped at his question; he tried to hide his alteration with one of his bright smiles.

“You just said two words in a row? I'm flattered...”

The genuine concern with which Hyunwoo watched him made him swallow his words. His heart was pounding, maintaining eye contact and challenging him to look away first.

"Minhyuk..." he called with a warning tone.

"I'm perfectly fine," he answered softly; his eyes traveled to the other's beautiful lips and he swallowed hard. He had already accepted that he was attracted to the robot of the football team, and he had attributed it to his good physique; it would be hypocritical to deny it at that point, in his college years he would often stare at him when Hyunwoo didn’t realize: how to take his eyes off that ass when he ran around the training track?

But it was just that, a simple attraction. Nothing else.

Or that he liked to think.

Then, Hyunwoo began to lean towards him and his mind completely clouded. His heartbeat was deafening, and an exciting feeling of anticipation rose in his throat.

_Is he going to kiss me? And why am I closing my eyes? I'm not supposed to give in this easy, I shouldn’t..._

Suddenly, he felt a warm surface touch his hands and opened his eyes suddenly.

“Here.” He looked down and saw that Hyunwoo was offering him a can of green tea. He felt somewhat stupid for thinking he was going to kiss him, even disappointed. Although, what was he expecting? “This always cheers me up.”

Minhyuk accepted the drink with tight lips and, after struggling to open it, took a sip of the liquid. He didn’t know if it was green tea or Hyunwoo's company, but he felt better. Much better.

"Thank you," he murmured, holding the can between his cold fingers. He stared at the snowflakes with the intention of not thinking about the fact that his shoulders were touching, and that simple touch was enough to make him nervous. However, when he felt his big hand caress his hair, he was surprised and looked at him.

"Call me or send me a message whenever you want, okay?” he said with a smile that showed his teeth. His smile made him look like a beaver, and Minhyuk couldn’t help but think that it was adorable; he was speechless, something unusual in him, and merely nodded weakly.

Hyunwoo got up from the seat and climbed the stairs to go back into the building. Minhyuk turned around, touching the hair that had just been caressed, and a giggle escaped from his lips when he saw that the tanned boy had a dark stain on his ass from sitting on the wet steps.

He, too, had probably gotten soaked, but he was too aware of the warmth in his chest to think about it.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun took a deep breath with his eyes closed before pushing the door of the assembly hall. The old, threadbare red carpet he walked by was familiar to him, as were the chairs he passed his hand through as he moved toward the stage. The small stairs to the right creaked as he climbed them, and the musty smell on the backstage flooded his nostrils.

He never thought he would miss such an unpleasant scent.

Changkyun activated the buttons on the electrical panel and, when the spotlights illuminated the piano in the center of the room, he swore he had momentarily ran out of breath.

With hesitant steps, he approached the instrument and laid a hand on the dark wood; it was cold, and yet he could feel how life and music flowed through his arm and filled him completely.

He would miss that old piano.

Changkyun took a seat on the bench and ran a finger along the keyboard, feeling every little slot between each key, brushing its surface with extreme delicacy. It was in these moments when he realized that music was his future. There were moments when he hesitated, in which the bittersweet feeling that the piano left him took a long time to vanish and tried to persuade him to give up.

But in the end, Changkyun always went back to music. It was part of his being, of his identity.

He settled down and, although he didn’t have any score to read, put on his glasses; he was so ingrained in him to play with that pair of glasses in his eyes that it was very strange to do it without them.

After all that time, he felt that without those glasses he wasn’t no longer Lim Changkyun.

He began to play the scale from the note Do to Sol to warm the fingers. First he did it with one hand, then with both; he ended up creating a simple melody with those notes. With a smile, he began to move his head to set the pace, at the same time he stepped on the pedal.

So many classes and musical analysis exercises made him forget how much fun it was to play the piano.

Suddenly, someone behind him removed his glasses and he immediately stopped playing. He turned on the bench and found Hoseok, who was watching him with an amused smile.

"Hello, puppy," he greeted him cheerfully. Changkyun rolled his eyes at the nickname he refused to stop using after all that time; then Hoseok put on his glasses and grabbed his own chin with one hand. “What do you think?” he asked, posing for him.

"They make you look smart," Changkyun replied, trying to suppress a smile.

Wonho pulled his cell phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and looked at his reflection. The small boy watched as he ran his fingers through his brown hair, now combed back, revealing his delicate eyebrows. The glasses, next to his white shirt, gave him a more mature aura.

Changkyun sighed and turned back to the piano, shaking his head.

"Show off..." he murmured, caressing a key with the tips of his fingers.

“What did you say?” Wonho snapped.

“That you look handsome.”

Hoseok gave a satisfied giggle at the compliment and sat on his left on the bench, offering him his glasses.

“Are you done with your morning shift?” Changkyun asked, putting on his glasses, receiving a nod in response. When Hoseok finished college, he began working seriously at his mother's establishment, and also worked at a kindergarten near the cafeteria as a part-time caregiver. Having two jobs left him exhausted, but he always found time to visit Changkyun from time to time, sometimes coming to pick him up in his car to take him to the residence.

And Changkyun’s last day of classes couldn’t be the exception.

He noticed the dark circles that decorated Wonho's tired eyes and bit his lip. It always hurt to see him like that, but it hurt more those last few days. Even though he supported him on his decision of studying music abroad, Changkyun knew he was suffering a lot. Hoseok’s mom had told him that he was often sad, more tired, and that she even heard him cry alone in the kitchen, when his shift was over.

And, even so, Wonho always kept a warm smile for him. Seeing that always made him want to cry.

The older boy let out a sigh and rested his head on his shoulder, taking Changkyun out of his reverie, before speaking.

“Play something for me.”

Changkyun raised an eyebrow and looked at him from above.

“What do you want me to play?”

The brunette pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Something happy," he finally declared, standing up with a smile.

After mentally reviewing the melodies that he learned when he should be practicing for his recitals, he came up with one that Hoseok might like.

"Your wishes are orders," he said with conviction, doing a couple of finger stretches and winning a giggle from his boyfriend. Then, he started playing 'I love you baby', by Frank Sinatra. At first, the careful observation of Wonho made him nervous, but as the song progressed, his confidence increased. When the chorus arrived, he exaggerated his movements to make his particular listener laugh and, of course, he achieved his purpose.

Hoseok sang some lyrics of the song with the best English accent he could, making even more evident the lisp that Changkyun considered adorable. When the piece ended, Wonho clapped in fascination and stroked his hair proudly.

“Ah... my Changkyunnie is so cool.” The pianist pressed his lips in embarrassment at the compliment and looked away. “I wish I could play like you.”

“Do you want me... to teach you?” he asked, glancing at him. Hoseok's face lit up and when he rolled up his shirt to the elbows, Changkyun knew his answer. “But only the chorus," he clarified with a smile as he saw the enthusiasm of his new student. Wonho nodded several times and, imitating the dark haired boy, stretched out his fingers and placed them on the piano, looking at Changkyun expectantly.

The professor sighed and took his right hand to place it in the proper position.

"The song is in Fa's key, so you have to put your hand like that," he said, gently stretching his fingers and placing them on the correct keys. “Now press this one, and then this one.”

The two notes that came out of the piano were those that a set of cheerful trumpets and trombones played in the chorus of the song. With extreme concentration, Wonho repeated the same two notes first slowly and carefully, as if he were going to hurt the instrument, and then faster and with greater ease.

“Good, now play these other three notes after the first two.”

Hoseok did as he was told and, seeing that the melody was beginning to take shape, he got excited and smiled as he continued to press the keys.

“Look, Changkyun, I'm playing!” he exclaimed very happy. He looked like a small child in the eyes of the youngest. The auditorium was a cold place, and yet the warmth flooded them; they both smiled and had fun together, and Changkyun thought that this moment was something he should never forget.

Then, some out of tune notes came out of the piano and Wonho stopped playing, biting his lip and looking at him guiltily, as if he had done something wrong.

"You have gone too fast," Changkyun explained, unable to hide the tender smile that decorated his thin lips. “Start again with the first two," he continued, taking his soft, pale hand into the correct place.

Hoseok started again with greater caution. He played the first two notes over and over again until he felt confident enough to keep moving forward; and, again, a few squeaking notes resounded in the auditorium. The apprentice ruffled his hair in frustration, and Changkyun patted him on the back to comfort him.

"Don’t worry, if you keep practicing, you'll do better," Changkyun said, rubbing his back delicately.

That seemed to cheer him up a bit, even though he kept watching the keys with a pout; now, the strands of his brown hair fell over his forehead, practically covering his eyes. That was how he wore his hair when he went to college, and Changkyun couldn’t help but chuckle, remembering those old times where Hoseok was the mad attractive, heart-breaker guy of the campus. He still was, but just for him.

However, his smile faded as soon as Wonho opened his mouth to speak.

"Please..." he murmured, staring straight ahead. He turned his neck slowly towards Changkyun before continuing, “...don’t go.”

His heart skipped a bit, as he thought that Wonho was begging him not to follow his dream of studying music. Changkyun said nothing, his mood dropped at that possibility; they had already talked about it, he supported him on his decision, how could he ask him not to go now?

But no. Wonho would never do that.

However, as soon as a mischievous smile appeared on his rosy lips, Changkyun’s cheeks turned red. He knew exactly what Hoseok was doing, and it wasn’t funny.

"Stop..." he demanded with annoyance, but without finding the strength in his voice to show how upset he was. The brunette ignored him and began to lean towards him.

“My heart...”continued lowering the tone of voice, “...beats fast when I'm with you.”

"Hoseok," he called with warning. His heart beat uncontrollably against his chest; he knew that Wonho was just playing at repeating the lines of script he heard him recite when they met, and still he didn’t want to hear him say the words that followed.

“I love you.”

There was a moment of silence in which they stared at each other, Wonho with a big smile on his face, and Changkyun with cheeks as red as tomatoes.

It wasn’t the first time he told him those words. Wonho said those to him on their awful first date at the amusement park, while he cried like a baby on the Ferris wheel because he was scared of heights, clinging to his jacket and yelling that he loved him and that he didn’t want to die. Still, Changkyun didn’t like that he said them so lightly, as if they were a joke to him.

"You're an idiot," the dark-haired boy mumbled, completely embarrassed. Hoseok continued to approach, without being offended by the term with which he referred to him.

“Oh, you love this idiot.”

Changkyun felt like he was getting breathless and remained motionless. He cursed himself for, after almost three years of relationship, still falling to the charms of Shin Hoseok. Only when Wonho brushed his nose against his, a trembling sigh left his lips.

“Are you going to run away, like that day?” Wonho asked amused, raising his hands to remove his glasses slowly. Changkyun swallowed loudly and noticed how his mouth was drying as he watched as he left his glasses on the keyboard; he simply couldn’t resist him, no matter how hard he tried. He shook his head weakly, earning a smile from Hoseok. “You were so scared," he murmured before giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. He dragged his lips across his skin and left another kiss on his forehead and then on his other rosy cheek, “like a cute puppy.”

Changkyun recalled the day they met, and how he ran away after his glasses broke, without even telling his name to Hoseok. That day he was a coward, and his pride wouldn’t let him admit it.

“I- I wasn’t scare-" he tried to defend himself, but Wonho's lips rested on his, interrupting his unconvincing justification.

"Don’t lie," Hoseok whispered against his lips, giving him a kiss even slower than the previous one, running his fingers up his leg. Changkyun trembled under his touch and, instinctively, raised his hands to grab hold of his strong shoulders.

"Stop playing around..." he muttered, almost out of breath, totally hypnotized by the soft kisses of Wonho and the warmth of his skin under the thin white shirt he was wearing.

The elder parted a little to look him in the eye. Those brown orbs always watched him with an overwhelming intensity that made his heart shrivel.

"I'm not playing around," he declared with great seriousness.

"You're saying embarrassing things just to annoy me," Changkyun explained, trying to sound angry, struggling to concentrate and stop thinking about their breaths mixing into one.

"I'm telling the truth," Wonho answered, his eyes narrowing and catching his lips again in a kiss, this time opening his mouth with his and gently caressing his tongue. Changkyun closed his eyes tight and clung to his shirt, totally lost in its sweet and intoxicating taste. “And I want..." he murmured between the kisses "to hear you saying it too.”

The black haired boy pulled away from him with a heavy breath and looked away, knowing what he was asking. Changkyun didn’t have the same facility to express his feelings with words; Hoseok was able to shout from the rooftops that he loved him, while Changkyun showed him his affection with small actions.

Wonho tucked a strand of hair behind his ear to catch his attention again, and Changkyun found him pouting.

"Pretty please?" he said very quietly, giving him the puppy dog eyes. The little boy didn’t know what to do and he felt cornered. It was too embarrassing to tell him, he didn’t know if he could do it, but he couldn’t say no to that pleading look.

With his cheeks burning, he tilted his face and played with the sleeves of his black sweater.

"I..." he began, swallowing hard. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes; maybe that would help him in the process. "Iloveyoutoo," he mumbled very quickly and in an almost inaudible tone of voice.

With shyness, he opened one eyelid and found that Hoseok had a big smile decorating his lips. Had he heard him?

"You'll have to forgive me, but lately I don’t hear very well..." Wonho explained, pointing to one of his ears full of piercings. “Would you mind repeating it?”

Changkyun clicked his tongue and hit his arm: it was obvious that he had listened to him and was only teasing him. Wonho let out an exaggerated groan and rubbed the sore area.

“Hey! You can’t hit your elders.”

"I don’t know if I can consider you as one," Changkyun replied shrugging, reaching for his glasses and putting them on again.

“Why not?” he asked with a frown. Changkyun ignored him and took his hand, replacing it on the keyboard.

“Come on, I'll keep teaching you.” Wonho withdrew his hand from the piano and pulled the sleeve of his black sweater with a pout.

“Why am I not your elder?” he insisted, shaking him slightly. Changkyun sighed and shook his head, knowing that he wouldn’t like his answer.

“Because you have the mental age of a three-year-old child.” Hoseok stood petrified, looking at him with wide eyes and a hurt expression. It was the pure truth, and even so Changkyun felt guilty. It wasn’t his intention to make him feel bad. “But don’t worry, it's a good thing, a philosopher once said that the most immature people are the happiest.”

“For real?” Wonho asked a little downheartedly. Changkyun smiled at him and nodded. “And what philosopher was that?”

The boy was thoughtful for a few seconds, trying to remember some name he had learned in high school, but none came to mind. He cleared his throat nervously and finally answered.

"A really, really wise one," he finally replied, hoping it had sounded convincing enough. For his luck, Wonho seemed to believe it and smiled satisfied, placing his fingers again on the keyboard, ready to pick up with the classes.

His teacher continued to teach him patiently, laughing softly every time Hoseok failed and put the blame on the piano.

Changkyun knew that no philosopher had said such a thing, or maybe one did, and a small part of his being believed in it. Wonho seemed happy, and that simple fact made him happy.

For a time he was insecure and he was afraid that what they felt for each other would fade, be lost over the years.

But with each passing day, his feelings were getting stronger and stronger. When he thought he couldn’t love more this flashy boy, full of piercings and charming smile, Hoseok sang along with him, bringing out his lisp. He held his hand as they walked down the street and giggled. He forced him to go shopping together to ask if he looked good on the clothes. He came to the faculty to pick him up and spent the afternoon together in his mother's cafeteria to talk about how the day had gone. He supported him on his decisions, even if that meant being away from each other for a long time.

He was smiling with him, and that was all he needed. Everything that mattered.

Who would have told him that he would end up completely and hopelessly in love with Shin Hoseok? Nobody, of course. And, in case that someone had warned him years ago, he would have laughed at the bad joke.

Life took a lot of turns, and in Changkyun's, all the possible routes leaded to the person who was at his side at that moment... and with whom he would stay together for a long, long time. It didn’t matter that Changkyun were going to study music in far away city, because they’d find a way to make things work. They loved each other, and those strong feelings would never die, they would tie them together until Changkyun came back from studying abroad, with a huge smile running through the airport to hug tightly his sobbing, also smiley boyfriend.

Maybe, years later, they would live in a flat in the city, and the members of their small family would grow little by little. They’d have a daughter and a son, since Wonho adored children, and he’d teach his husband to make his voice less scary. A little puppy would join the family later, because the two of them loved the idea of walking him together, and because Wonho was allergic to cats. While their little girl would have her godfather’s passion for theatre, their little boy would maybe be as awesome as Changkyun playing the piano, and his two proud dads would attend every single one of his recitals.

Maybe Changkyun wouldn’t be as bad a father as he thought at first.

But those were details that the two would discover in due time.

 

 

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy so this was it!!! Ahhh as I told before, when I wrote the words "the end" I felt really sad, like months ago when I finished the fic :'((( sigh... well, as you see, Minhyuk could be forgiven at the end, he really regretted what he did, so I thought it'd be fair. So, speaking about Hyungwon and Kihyun, at the beginning it wasn't my intention to involve them romantically, but I really liked their dynamics, so I said why not? but sadly, not everyone can be happy, so I chose that it'd be one sided (sorry Hyungwon)
> 
> And about showhyuk, is an open end for those two, you can think that they ended up together, you can think that it was only a crush and that Minhyuk moved on to find another person to love, it's up to the reader!  
> But of course, wonkyun ended up together!!! it's a little sad that Changkyun had to go away to follow his dreams, and Wonho loves him, that's why he supports him even though of suffering alone. But guess what? they end up being a happy family with two sons and a puppy, so I guess that I redeemed myself hehehe (I also wanted to add a little peek to what happened on their first date, when they were celebrating their hundred-days anniversary on last chapter <3)  
> So, I guess this is a goodbye to this story, I enjoyed so much writing it (maybe suffered a bit translating it, but anything for wonkyun). If you have any doubt about any detail of the story, don't be afraid and ask me anything on the comments! (oh btw, I don't know if you guys saw the reference to the fic's title on this chapter)
> 
> Soon I'll upload another wonkyun story, the wonderland au that I've been writing for the last months (yeah, the one I said that I'd upload when I finish it and that I'll still upload unfinished heeee gotta spread the wonkyun loveee)
> 
> Anyways, I'm sososo grateful for the comments I got in this story and that gave me energies to translate this fic, even though sometimes I wanted to give up. Really, thank you so much, you don't even know what those meant to me :')) 
> 
> We'll see soon then, a lot of kisses and hugs!!! Love yall <3333333333


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